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Vincent Wheeler Bladen, OC, economist (born 14 August 1900 in Stoke-on-Trent, England; died 26 November 1981 in Toronto, ON). Bladen is recognized for his contributions to the field of economics and to a number of royal commissions, including the Royal Commission on the Automotive Industry (1961). (See also Automotive Industry; Canada-US Auto Pact.)
Career
Vincent Bladen came from Balliol College, Oxford to the University of Toronto in 1921. Teacher, scholar, department head and dean, he was also an adviser to government, and his policy papers were responsible indirectly for the Canada-US Auto Pact (1965). His writings treated the auto industry, university financing, Canadian economic affairs, industrial organization and "the literature of political economy," the topic for which generations of undergraduates remember him.
As chairman of political economy and then dean of arts, he presided over the University of Toronto's expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, taking a special interest in area studies and graduate work, where he favoured Canadian self-reliance. A man of immense energy, he founded the Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, and found time to interest himself in cooking, horsemanship and the National Ballet of Canada.
Honours and Awards
- Officer, Order of Canada (1976)
