Harry Swain

Harry Swain is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies. 

After posts at the universities of Toronto, Cambridge and B.C., and at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria), Dr. Swain served for 22 years in the federal government, ending as deputy minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and later Industry. Responsibility for such disparate areas is a function of Ottawa’s longstanding policy of alphabetical assignments.

Leaving Ottawa in 1996, Swain became a director of the merchant bank Hambros in London and CEO of its Canadian subsidiary. On Hambros’ acquisition by a large but sleepy French bank, he joined the public policy consultancy Sussex Circle as a partner and headed its Toronto office.

He chaired the Research Advisory Panel for the Walkerton Inquiry and the subsequent Ontario Expert Panel on Water and Wastewater. In 2005 he moved to Victoria and became associated with its University, which had earlier awarded him an LL.D. for contributions to Canadian science policy. Swain also has a real PhD, in economic geography, from Minnesota.

His recent book, Oka, has received wide acclaim.  

Recently, he chaired the joint federal-provincial review of Site C, an $8 billion hydroelectric proposal.