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John Meisel, CC, educator, public servant (born 23 October 1923 in Vienna, Austria; died 30 March 2025 in Kingston, ON). John Meisel was known to academics as a leading expert on Canadian politics. He was perhaps best known to the public as the chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) from 1979 to 1983. He was also a professor of political science at Queen's University for five decades. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999.
Education and Early Career
Born in Austria to Czech parents, Meisel was educated at schools in Czechoslovakia. His father’s employer, the Bata Shoe Company, helped the family come to Canada in January 1942. As a teenager, Meisel attended Ottershaw College in the UK and Pickering College in Newmarket, Ontario. He then studied at the University of Toronto before earning a PhD at the London School of Economics.
In 1949, he joined Queen's University. After switching research interests from international relations to political science, he published groundbreaking work on the 1957 and 1962 general elections as well as other studies on the Canadian political system.
Career Highlights
As a political science professor, John Meisel co-founded The Canadian Journal of Political Science and The International Political Science Review. He also served on a number of royal commissions in research capacities.
In December 1979, the Joe Clark government named Meisel head of the CRTC. He served there until October 1983 and presided over the introduction of pay television in Canada.
Beginning in 1983, Meisel was the Sir Edward Peacock professor of political science at Queen's University. His area of specialization was the study of broadcast regulation and cultural policy.
Meisel was named an Officer in the Order of Canada in 1989 and was promoted to Companion in 1999. A noted philanthropist, he donated the Meisel Woods Conservation Area, 130 acres of forested trails, to the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority in 2000. His memoir, A Life of Learning and Other Pleasures, was published in 2012.
