Post-Keynesianism in Canada: From an Extraordinary Beginning to an Uncertain Future?

The article traces how Keynes’s original thought came to Canada beginning in the early 1930s, mostly by way of three Canadian students: Plumptre, Bryce and Tarshis. As post-Keynesian economic ideas began to take root very early in the post-WWII period at the University of Cambridge, it quickly also spread to Canada during the 1950s and 1960s both directly via Cambridge, through the writings of Asimakopulos at McGill University, and indirectly, via Harvard, with the work of Lamontagne at Laval University. The economics department at McGill University played a central role in the development of post-Keynesianism in Canada throughout the following decades. It provided a solid basis for expansion not only in the Montreal area but also in the Ottawa region and in Toronto, as well as south-western Ontario. There were, however, also independent shoots as, for instance, at the University of Waterloo but which had not been as sustained. After taking stock of the various developments in the major academic institutions where both heterodox and, more narrowly, post-Keynesian ideas developed, we conclude that the future of post-Keynesianism is at risk, given the immense ideological resistance and a push towards conformity in economics departments across Canada.