Vernon Clifford Fowke

Vernon Clifford Fowke

Vernon Clifford Fowke, economic historian, professor (b at Parry Sound, Ont 5 May 1907; d at San Francisco, Calif 24 Feb 1966). He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1929, and immediately joined the teaching staff. He continued his graduate studies at U of Chicago and U of Washington, where he received his PhD in 1942. His doctoral thesis, published as Canadian Agricultural Policy (1946), remains a key study and established him as the most influential historian of Canadian agriculture. It was supplemented by The National Policy and the Wheat Economy (1957) and (with George BRITNELL) Canadian Agriculture in War and Peace(1962) and numerous articles. Fowke also advised numerous royal commissions including the Rowell-Sirois Royal Commission on DOMINION-PROVINCIAL RELATIONS and, after 1946, served on the Transportation Advisory Board, where he played a key role in defending the CROW'S NEST PASS AGREEMENT. One of the most influential Canadian economists of his day, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1954.