William D. Gairdner

WILLIAM D. GAIRDNER, PhD, (1940-2024) led a busy life as an athlete, an academic, a businessman, and latterly, as a successful author.

As a young athlete, Bill competed in the decathlon at the 1963 Pan-Am Games in Brazil (silver medal), and at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 (11th place), and then in two Commonwealth Games in the 400 metre hurdles event (6th place both times)

After earning a number of higher degrees, including a Doctorate in Literature and Philosophy from Stanford University (1970), he taught at York University in Toronto for several years, and then decided to pursue a career in business, from which he retired in 1988 to devote his time to writing.

Beginning in 1990, he produced a string of bestselling books in quick succession, including The Trouble with Canada (# 1 in Canada in 1990), and The War Against The Family. He was then the managing editor of Canada’s Founding Debates – now a historical landmark. On the heels of that he published The Trouble with Democracy, and also The Book of Absolutes. His last book was The Trouble with Canada … Still! – an overview of the regime-change in Canada over the past twenty years that was released in 2010 and sold out in three months.