Article

Clarence Lyle Barber

Published Online December 13, 2007

Last Edited December 9, 2013

Clarence Lyle Barber, economist (b near Wolseley, Sask 5 May 1917). His experience of prairie farm life during the GREAT DEPRESSION gave him a commitment to improving Canadian economic policy and a concern for the needs of farmers.

Barber, Clarence Lyle

Clarence Lyle Barber, economist (b near Wolseley, Sask 5 May 1917). His experience of prairie farm life during the GREAT DEPRESSION gave him a commitment to improving Canadian economic policy and a concern for the needs of farmers. After study at the universities of Saskatchewan, Clark and Minnesota and 2 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Barber joined the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in 1945, moving to McMaster in 1948 and in 1949 to the University of Manitoba, until his retirement in 1984.

Barber has written many articles and monographs on economic theory and policy in a Canadian context. He directed the research which led to the Greater Winnipeg Floodway, served as UN adviser to the Philippines and, from 1966 to 1970, conducted a one-man Royal Commission on Farm Machinery. He was a member of the Royal Commission on the ECONOMIC UNION AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS FOR CANADA 1982-85. In 1977 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada.