Remembering My Gordon
Prof. Myron Gordon was an economist, a long-time member of faculty at the Rotman School of business at the U of T, and a founding member of the Progressive Economics Forum. Sadly he passed away in Toronto on July 5 of this year.
My Gordon was very influential with me, and I know with many other independent-minded economists in Canada.  In 1998 he helped us found a network of economists determined to broaden the bounds of acceptable debate (which became the Progressive Economics Forum).  He attended many of our sessions, presented several papers, and always challenged us to be both policy-relevant and rigorous.  His work on electricity markets was especially influential with many of us in the trade union movement; we tapped his expertise in this subject several times in our long fight against energy deregulation and privatization.  He also wrote extensively on pharmaceutical policy and financial market structures. He gave me important advice and comments on my first book (Paper Boom, 1999).
Like many left economists in Canada, I am personally and professionally indebted to My for his dedication, professionalism, and mentorship. There will be a memorial service for him at the Rotman School on Sept. 11, 1:30 pm, on the 3rd Floor (105 St. George St.). To attend this event, please RSVP either online at http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/sept11 or by calling Jennifer Hildebrandt at 416-946-7462. In lieu of flowers his family has suggested a donation (fittingly) to Doctors Without Borders. Thank you, Myron, for your contributions to critical economics!
Thanks for this Jim. I have vague memories of My being a very much a presence at NDP Conventions way back when – very few progressive academic economists to be found in that milieu these days.
Myron Gordon wrote for Canadian Forum when I edited the magazine. I knew him only through his work. His great standing in the economics of finance I only discovered through an obituary. At Forum we appreciated his un-comprismising outlook on the world. He was a labour guy, loyal to the working class, and a defender of the public against the private.Always very knowledgable, Myron was able to express a strong point of view for a magazine, or do a report on behalf of a union that government had to take seriously. His defence of Ontario Hydro when the Enron admirers were out to privatize it was greatly appreciated. He had courage, and ability. He will be missed.
I had an opportunity to interview Myron Gordon back in 1969, when I was a reporter for the University of Rochester student newspaper and he was a faculty member in the business school leading an (unsuccessful) effort to push the university to cut off its very substantial involvement with U.S. military intelligence during the Vietnam War. I see in a 2007 article in the Canadian Investment Review that Gordon moved to the University of Toronto in 1970 “angered with the University of Rochester’s active pursuit of military and CIA contracts.” I think I didn’t know that at the time — from our point of view he just vanished. I had an opportunity to catch up with him briefly amidst the effort to stop privatization of Ontario Hydro. A remarkable person.