— Staff —

Peter Holle

President
Peter Holle is the founding President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, an award-winning western Canadian based public policy think tank. Since its founding in 1997, Frontier has brought a distinctive and influential Prairie voice to regional and national debates over public policy in areas such as core public sector reform, housing, poverty, aboriginals, consumer-focused health care performance, equalization, rural policy and much more. Of the nearly 100 recognized think tanks in Canada, Frontier is one of only 5 to make the 2008 global “Go-To Think Tanks” list published by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

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Mr. Holle has worked extensively with public sector reform and has provided advisory services to various governments across Canada and the United States. His publications have appeared in various newspapers and journals including dozens of newspapers, the National Post and the Wall Street Journal. He has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  He is a member of various organizations including the Mont Pelerin Society, an international organization of classical liberals.

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David Leis

VP Development and Engagement

David is a long time supporter of the Centre’s mission.  He is passionate in his role about inviting and engaging a strong national community in support of the mission of the Frontier. He believes strongly in the importance of good Public Policy for the benefit of the lives of all Canadians.

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He has served in a variety of senior leadership roles in within industry, government, First Nations and education. David studied at Waterloo, Ryerson, Toronto and undertook his Masters in Public Policy at Queen’s University.

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Rodney Clifton

Editor/Senior Fellow
Rodney Clifton is responsible for directing the Frontier Centre’s research program. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba.

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He received his B.Ed and M.Ed. from the University of Alberta, his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and his Fil.Dr. from the University of Stockholm.  In addition, he has been awarded a Spencer Fellowship from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, a Rh. Award from the University of Manitoba, a R.W.B. Jackson Research Award from the Canadian Educational Researchers’ Association, and both an Edward Sheffield and a Distinguished Research Awards from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education.  He has written for numerous newspapers and journals, including the Canadian Journal of Education, Policy Options,Sociology of Education, the National Post, and the Winnipeg Free Press.  His books include Socioeconomic Status, Attitudes, and Educational Performances: A Comparison of Students in England and New Zealand, Authority in Classrooms, Crosscurrents: Contemporary Canadian Educational Issues, and Recent Social Trends in Canada, 1960-2000.  His most recent book, What’s Wrong With Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them, was published in 2010 and was written with Michael Zwaagstra and John Long.

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Ian Madsen

Senior Policy Analyst 
Ian Madsen, as an investment and financial analyst based in Surrey, BC, has extensive experience in portfolio and financial analysis.

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He has a BA in Economics from the University of Alberta and an MBA in Finance from the University of Toronto. He has managed institutional investment portfolios, lectured at colleges, managed investment research operations, in North America and overseas, and developed complex financial valuation models. He also ran his own investment counselling firm and advisory newsletter. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a former president of the Saskatchewan and Edmonton CFA Societies. Past projects for the Frontier Centre have included valuations of SaskTel, SaskPower, ATB Financial, and SaskEnergy.

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— Senior Fellows —

Brian Dale Giesbrecht

Senior Fellow

Brian Dale Giesbrecht received his education at United College and The University of Manitoba, where he obtained his LLB in 1972. He worked with Walsh, Micay and Co., and then joined Legal Aid Manitoba in 1975 to become Senior Attorney and the first Area Director for western Manitoba in Brandon.

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Appointed to The Provincial Court (Family Division) in 1976, he heard child welfare cases and general family matters until he transfered to the Criminal Division in 1989. During his career he served on the National Family Court Committee, and various provincial court committees. He was an Associate Chief Judge from 1991 to 2005, and he became Acting Chief Judge in 1993. Among the notable cases he heard was the Lester Desjarlais Inquiry. His report strongly criticized the government’s decision to devolve child welfare responsibilities to racially based child-care agencies. Following his retirement from the Bench in 2007, Mr. Giesbrecht has written extensively for various publications. His main theme has been the need to abolish The Indian Act and the separate systems of government that exist in Canada.

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Philip Carl Salzman

Senior Fellow
Philip Carl Salzman received his B.A from Antioch College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and he served as Professor of Anthropology at McGill University from 1968 to 2018.

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He founded the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and its international journal, Nomadic Peoples, for which he received the IUAES Gold Award. In recent years, he has been a Senior Fellow at the University of St. Andrews, an Open Society International Scholar at the American University of Central Asia, an Erasmus Mundus International Fellow at the University of Catania, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has engaged in extensive ethnographic field research in Baluchistan (Iran), Gujarat and Rajasthan (India), and Sardinia (Italy) which has provided the foundation for many articles in academic journals, and for books such as The Anthropology of Real Life: Events in Human Experience (1999), Black Tents of Baluchistan (2000) (winner of the Premio PitrP–Salomone Marino Award), Understanding Culture: An Introduction of Anthropological Theory (2001), Pastoralists: Equality, Hierarchy, and the State (2004), Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (2008), Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict (2008), and Thinking Anthropologically 3rd Ed, (2010). His latest book is Classic Comparative Anthropology: Studies from the Tradition (2012). In public affairs, he was a member of Middle East Strategy at Harvard (2008-2010), a member of the Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (2004-2012), and is currently a member of the Academic Council of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Studies, a Fellow of the Middle East Forum (2015-), and a member of the Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (2016-). He has published articles and reports in the Middle East Forum, Gatestone Institute, the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, and the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

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Wendell Cox

Senior Fellow
Wendell Cox is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy with expertise in housing affordability and municipal policy.

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In addition, Wendell is Principal of Demographia, an international consultancy based in St. Louis, Missouri specializing in regional and municipal housing policy and related planning issues. The leading global authority on housing affordability and municipal policy, Wendell is co-author of the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Index, which receives more than 1.3 million unique downloads each year. A former member of the Los Angeles Transportation Commission and Amtrak Reform Council, Wendell has consulted extensively on urban planning and transportation issues. He is the author of Toward More Prosperous Cities, a framing essay on the fundamental objectives of cities.

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Marco Navarro-Génie

Senior Fellow

Dr. Marco Navarro-Génie received his education at the CEGEP de Saint-Laurent and Concordia University in Montreal, and at the University of Calgary, where he earned his doctorate. He taught at Mount Royal University, Saint Mary’s University, the University of Calgary, SAIT and Concordia University between 1993 and 2013. He is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the President of the Haultain Research Institute, a prairie-focused public policy institute.

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He is the former executive vice president at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and a former resident of Civitas. He served as the fourth president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and as vice president of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy after his time in academe. He is a former board director of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Navarro-Génie writes and comments regularly on local and national media outlets about Alberta and Canadian public policy. His academic work focuses on radical revolutionary movements and cultural and political identity.

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Kenneth P. Green

Senior Fellow

Kenneth P. Green, D.Env. promotes more effective, more efficient, more affordable, and especially, more freedom-friendly Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) policies across North America.
Ken has an extensive publication list of research studies, essays, opinion columns, curricular materials, and more. He has appeared often in most forms of media across North America, and he has testified before subcommittees of the US House, US Senate and the Canadian House of Commons and Senate.

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Over his 25 years in the policy world, Ken has been privileged to work with a number of freedom-friendly institutions in the United States and Canada, including the Reason Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Pacific Research Institute; the  Frontier Center for Public Policy and the Fraser Institute. Ken is currently a Senior Fellow of the Frontier Center for Public Policy, studying the corruption of risk assessment that has badly harmed North American society, and what can be done to fix it. 

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Leighton Grey

Senior Fellow

From 1985-89, Leighton attended Augustana University in Camrose before transferring to the University of Alberta to complete his B.A. (Distinction) with dual majors in English Literature & History. He was awarded an essay prize in Ethics in 1988 and received the Louise McKinney Scholarship, awarded to Alberta students with the top 2% of GPA in the Province. Leighton was awarded the prestigious Legal Studies For Aboriginal People Scholarship from 1989-92, which is a national prize presented to only 10 students each year. He received early acceptance to the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 1988 and graduated in 1992. Leighton also pursued post graduate degrees in Business Administration (2017) and his PhD (Philosophy).

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Leighton began his legal career with the Federal Department of Justice, where he completed his Articles of Clerkship in 1993 before taking a hiatus to play minor league pro hockey with The Daytona Beach Sun Devils. In 1995, Leighton resumed the full -time practice of law. In 2005, Leighton founded his current practice. Leighton was admitted to the Law Society of Saskatchewan in 2004 and to the Law Society of British Columbia in 2014. Leighton has conducted hundreds of trials before Alberta Courts, and has for many years been considered one of the top criminal trial lawyers in Alberta. he has served as mentor or principal to eight articling students, two of whom went on to become Partners in GWSLLP. Leighton is also a Qualified Mediator and Arbitrator, and is a member of the ADR Institute of Canada. He served as an Adjudicator in Law Society Disciplinary Hearings from 2015-2020. Leighton was made Queen’s Counsel in 2010, and was then the youngest lawyer in Alberta to hold that prestigious designation. He was the recipient of the 2013 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award, the 2015 Legal Aid Society Access to Justice Award, and the 2019 Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Gary J. Bigg Justice & Humanitarian Award.

Leighton was born in Regina Saskatchewan and grew up in the Kensington community of north Edmonton. Leighton is a status Indian whose Great Grandfather was once the Hereditary Chief of the Carry The Kettle or Jack Band at Sintaluta, SK. Leighton’s grandmother and great aunt were both survivors of the notorious Brandon Indian Residential School. Leighton’s father is a Treaty Indian who spent over two decades helping indigenous youth transition out of urban gangs, and was the founder of The Spiritkeeper Youth Society. Leighton excelled in sports and academics, graduating with honours from Queen Elizabeth Composite High School in 1985, where he scored the highest mark in the Province on the Social Studies departmental final examination and was awarded the Alexander Rutherford Scholarship. He also played Bantam and Midget AAA hockey with the Canadian Athletic Club.

Leighton was heavily involved in the original IRS Class Action from 2004-2016, and represented hundreds of claimants in the ADR process that was part of the settlement which culminated in the Truth & Reconciliation Commission Report. He and his wife, Jennifer, are the proud parents of two sons who attend Rink Hockey Academy in Kelowna, B.C. Their family is also a proud owner and supporter of the Drayton Valley Thunder Junior A Hockey Club.

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Senior Fellow
Gerry Bowler grew up in Saskatoon and earned his first two academic degrees from the University of Saskatchewan. 

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He received his Ph.D. in History from King’s College, London with a dissertation on Protestant political theory of the Tudor period. He is an historian with eclectic interests. His writings range from academic texts on sixteenth-century Europe to the connection between Aristotle and professional wrestling. He is the only historian whose work is included in both The Encyclopedia of Popular Culture and The Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. He was the founder of The Centre for the Study of Christianity and Popular Culture at Calgary’s Canadian Nazarene College and taught for 25 years at the University of Manitoba.  Bowler is the editor of Music from Within: A Biography of Sophie Eckhardt-Gramatté (University of Manitoba Press, 1985) and The World’s Greatest Christmas Stories (Theodosian Press, 2016); and the author of Europe in the Sixteenth Century, second edition, (Longman, 1989), The World Encyclopedia of Christmas (McClelland and Stewart, 2000), God and The Simpsons: The Spirituality of Springfield, (Dare: 2001), Santa Claus: A Biography (McClelland and Stewart, 2005), Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday, (Oxford University Press: 2016) and The Kindly Curmudgeon (Theodosian Press, 2016).

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David MacKinnon

Senior Fellow
David MacKinnon, a native of Prince Edward Island, was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree (honours economics) from Dalhousie University and an MBA from York University.

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He was awarded a Centennial Fellowship by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and York University to study at York, Harvard and Oxford Universities as well as the European Institute of Business Studies. Mr. MacKinnon served as Director, Planning and Economics and Executive Director, Development Strategy in the Nova Scotia Department of Economic Development from 1976 to 1981. He later served in several senior capacities in the Ontario Public Service, the Bank of Montreal and as CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association from 1996 to 2003. Mr. MacKinnon is a Public Member of the Council of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons and is the Chair of its Finance Committee and a member of its Executive, Complaints and Outreach committees. He serves on several Boards of Directors, including the West Park Health Centre. He recently finished my five year term on the Standards Council of Canada and was subsequently elected to the board of the Canadian Standards Association. He has advised the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and other Ontario organizations on fiscal federalism issues particularly on the impact of regional subsidies on recipient and source provinces.

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Frances Widdowson

Senior Fellow
Frances Widdowson is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and Associate Professor in the Department in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University. Frances Widdowson received an Honours B.A. and M.A. in political science at the University of Victoria, and a Ph.D. in political science from York University.

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She has taught at a number of universities in Ontario and the Maritimes, and worked for five years as a policy analyst for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Frances uses a political economy perspective in her research on aboriginal and environmental policy, as well as the politics of religion. Her most recent publication (co-written with Albert Howard), Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation, was short-listed for the Donner Prize. She is currently working on another book (also with Albert Howard) on the social effects of religion.

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Tom Adams

Senior Fellow
Tom Adams is an independent energy and environmental advisor.

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He has held a variety of senior responsibilities including Executive Director of Energy Probe from 1996 until 2007, membership on the Ontario Independent Electricity Market Operator Board of Directors, and membership on the Ontario Centre for Excellence for Energy Board of Management. He has been a media commentator for over 20 years. His guest columns have appeared in most major Canadian newspapers. He has been a lecturer in energy studies at University of Toronto and has published several peer-reviewed papers in a range of fields. He has presented expert testimony before many regulatory tribunals in Canada on gas and electricity-related subjects. He has made presentations to Legislative Committees in Ontario and New Brunswick, academic, regulatory and trade conferences, the Atomic Energy Control Board, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. His profile appears in the Canadian Who’s Who.

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Frank Atkins

Senior Fellow
Frank Atkins recently retired as Associate Professor of Economics from the University of Calgary.

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Dr. Atkins spent two years at the Bank of Canada as an Economic Analyst. In 1981, he left the Bank of Canada to further his studies in economics at Queen’s University. Dr. Atkins then joined University of Calgary where he taught for more than 30 years. During his tenure, Dr. Atkins had the privilege of supervising the Master of Arts (Economics) thesis of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As well as publishing many articles in leading economic journals, Dr. Atkins is a frequent commentator on macroeconomics and policy issues for the major national networks.Dr. Atkins then joined University of Calgary where he taught for more than 30 years. During his tenure, Dr. Atkins had the privilege of supervising the Master of Arts (Economics) thesis of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As well as publishing many articles in leading economic journals, Dr. Atkins is a frequent commentator on macroeconomics and policy issues for the major national networks.

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Patrick Moore

Senior Fellow
Dr. Patrick Moore is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy with expertise in energy, ecology and prosperity.

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He has been a leader in the international environmental field for over 40 years. Dr. Moore is a Co-Founder of Greenpeace and served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada and seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International. Following his time with Greenpeace, Dr. Moore joined the Forest Alliance of BC where he worked for ten years to develop the Principles of Sustainable Forestry that have now been adopted by much of the industry. Today, Dr. Moore focuses on the promotion of sustainability and consensus building among competing concerns. In 2013 he published Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout – The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist, which documents his 15 years with Greenpeace and outlines his vision for a sustainable future.

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Roland Renner

Senior Fellow
Roland Renner, Telecom Policy and Regulation, has worked in telecommunications, broadcasting and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

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He has participated in the transition of telecommunications and broadcasting from monopoly to competitive policy and regulatory environments, and has been involved in numerous regulatory proceedings. He held management positions at Bell Canada and Telesat Canada. As a consultant he worked with PwC Consulting and Nordicity Group, he advised clients on new market opportunities in a changing regulatory climate. He has worked for both public and private sector clients in Canada, Germany, Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

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Michael Zwaagstra

Senior Fellow
Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and senior fellow of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. He received his Bachelor of Education and Master of Education from the University of Manitoba and Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Liberty University in Virginia.

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He is the author of A Sage on the Stage: Common Sense Reflections on Teaching and Learning, and co-author of What’s Wrong with Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them. He is a frequent author of education policy research and newspaper columns across Canada. His research mainly focuses on curricula, teaching instruction and public education. Michael’s research and commentary have been featured in radio, television and newspapers across the country. Michael lives with his wife and children in Steinbach, Manitoba, where he has also served as an elected city councillor since 2006.

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— Research Associates —

Susan Martinuk

Research Associate
Susan Martinuk is a Vancouver-based Research and Communications Specialist who has been a featured columnist in Canadian newspapers for over 20 years. She has published over 1500 OpEd columns, articles and reports on topics related to healthcare, medical technology, bioethics and public policy. As a medical researcher, she and her colleagues achieved a world-first medical breakthrough when they were the first to visualize and record human ovulation.

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In 2012, Susan published the first-ever study on PET (positron emission tomography) imaging in cancer care in Canada. PET is revolutionizing cancer management in every developed country except Canada. The 200-page, peer-reviewed report (http://www.triumf.ca/pet-report) identifies factors restricting its use and suggests that it could provide more clinically- and cost-effective care for cancer patients. She is also a former radio talk-show host and has served as the ghostwriter and/or editor for six published books. In 2012, Susan was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to Canadian society through her writing. 

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Randy Boldt

Research Associate
Randy Boldt is an experienced immigration practitioner and licensed immigration consultant.

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Randy was the principal developer and manager of the highly successful Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program for business, which he managed up until 2006, after which he became the Assistant Deputy Minister of Immigration in Saskatchewan. In 2008, he started his own immigration company – Visamax Ltd. Prior to becoming involved in immigration, he worked for 18 years the field of commercial banking and corporate finance both in Canada and the UK.  Randy completed his degree in Agricultural Economics at the University of Manitoba in 1978, and obtained his Masters of Business Administration from Cass Business School (part of the University of London, UK) in 1993.

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— Expert Advisory Panel —

David Beito

David Beito is an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama. Much of his research has focused on the history of the non-governmental provision of public services.

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He wrote Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression (1989), From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fratermal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 (2000), and edited The The Voluntary City: Choice Community, and Civil Society (2002). He has also published articles in Journal of Urban History, Critical Review, the Journal of Policy History, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and the Journal of Southern History. He is currently writing (with his co-author Professor Linda Royster Beito of Stillman College), a biography of Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a black civil rights pioneer, entrepreneur, and mutual aid leader. He was recently appointed Chairman of the Alabama State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He contributes to the Liberty and Power Group Blog at the History News Network (http://hnn.us/blogs/4.html). Professor Beito, a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

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Sir Roger Douglas

Sir Roger Douglas was Finance Minister in New Zealand’s Labour Government from 1984 to 1988.

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Sir Roger was responsible for one of the most comprehensive restructuring program ever attempted by a government anywhere. The program included cutting income tax rates in half, deregulating wide sectors of the New Zealand economy, ending farm and business subsidies, and restructuring and privatizing most state owned enterprises. Most significantly, Sir Roger overhauled the operating philosophy of government agencies and departments to make them run as competition-oriented, bottom line business enterprises that are fully accountable for resources they receive from taxpayers. Sir Roger retired from politics in 1990 and now operates an international consulting firm based from Auckland, New Zealand where he lives. In 2008 he was re-elected to the New Zealand parliament with the party he founded, the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers. See more at www.rogerdouglas.org.nz.

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Johan Hjertqvist

Johan Hjertqvist is the founder and president of the Health Consumer Powerhouse based in Stockholm, the European do-tank for better healthcare by consumer information and knowledge.

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Before the Powerhouse, Mr. Hjertqvist was the manager of Timbro Health Policy Unit, a division of the Timbro Policy Group in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Hjertqvist has a background in health care policy and welfare entrepreneurial activities. Beginning in 1999 he led a four-year project to analyze the transformation of health care in the Stockholm region which resulted in three comprehensive reports. His “The Stockholm Health Care Revolution” published in 2000 is an internationally well-known inspiration to reform. During the 1990’s, Mr. Hjertqvist played an active role in the transition of internal market ideas to a number of countries, UK, Norway and Canada not the least. Mr. Hjertqvist has also acted as an advisor to the Greater Stockholm Council, specializing in market infrastructures where purchasers and providers can meet and the focus of his projects between 1995 – 99 was on creating new arenas where private health care entrepreneurs and contractors could come together to strengthen the impact of market pluralism. Mr. Hjertqvist has a Master of Laws degree from the University of Stockholm and is a member of international health care networks and institutions such as the Stockholm Network in London and the Centre for the New Europe in Brussels and also serves on the Board of Research Advisors at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

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E.S. Savas

E.S. Savas is Presidential Professor at Baruch College, City University of New York.

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He is the author of fifteen books and over 130 articles; his books have been published in 23 foreign editions. He is an internationally known pioneer in, and authority on, privatization. He served as First Deputy City Administrator of New York, appointed by Mayor John V. Lindsay, and as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. He also served as a councilman in his suburban town. He was a professor of public management at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and taught in Baruch’s Department of Management, where he also served for eight years as chairman.
He has B.A. and B.S. degrees from the University of Chicago, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, and honorary doctorate degrees from two European universities

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Graham Lane

Graham Lane is a retired CA and has had a multifaceted career spanning almost 50 years in the public and private sectors of seven provinces as a Senior Executive and Consultant.

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In the public sector, before concluding his career as the Chairman of the PUB, he consulted for three provincial governments and was employed by four provinces. In Manitoba, he was the CEO of Credit Union Central, bringing in online banking, a Vice-President of Public Investments of Manitoba, the interim President of MPI, reorganizing the corporation after its massive losses of 1986, a Vice-President of the University of Winnipeg, and the CEO of the WCB, restructuring the insurer and returning it to solvency. His experience with Crown Corporations go well beyond Manitoba, he was the Comptroller of Saskatchewan’s Crown Investments Corporation, and a consultant reviewing government auto insurance in BC and workers compensation in Nova Scotia. He received the gold medal in Philosophy as an undergraduate, and a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International for excellence in vocational service. Throughout his career, and wherever he worked, consulted or volunteered, he maintained an external objectivity.

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— Board of Directors —

Wayne Anderson

Chair
Wayne Anderson was born in Winnipeg and graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, an appropriate degree: after he earned his MBA from York University in 1968 he became actively involved in his family’s cattle operation.

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He continued this farm work as he carved a path into Winnipeg’s business community. He has been a self employed entrepreneur for most of the last 40 years. In 1973, Mr Anderson was named President and General Manager of General Window Products of Canada Ltd. In 1981, he became President of Bonar Plastics Western Ltd. He remained there until 1993, when he became President at St Boniface Pallet Co., a position he still holds today. He was Vice President of Hillside Farms Manitoba Ltd from 1963 until 2003, and from 1993 to 2003 he was Chairman of the Manitoba Horse Racing Commission. He also served as a Director on the Board of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association for 18 years, including three years as Chair. Multitasking has always been his strength: while a university student he was a hockey player for both the Department of Agriculture and the U of M Bison Men’s Hockey Team, he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity and he served on the Agriculture Student Council. In 1998, Mr Anderson was elected to the University of Manitoba’s Board of Governors as a Representative of the Graduates. He was re-elected in 2001 and 2004. He served as Vice Chair from September 2000 until June 2002, when he was elected as Chair of the Board of Governors. That same year he was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. He served as Chair of the Board with great integrity for four years and then remained on the Board until May 2007.  Mr Anderson has also been a member of the University of Manitoba’s Trust and Endowment Committee since 1999. Since 2009, he served as Chair of the St Boniface Hospital’s Board of Directors and continues to be an integral part of the University of Manitoba community. He has been the Chair of the Frontier Board since 2002.

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Peter Holle

President
Peter Holle is the founding President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, an award-winning western Canadian based public policy think tank.

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Since its founding in 1997, Frontier has brought a distinctive and influential Prairie voice to regional and national debates over public policy in areas such as core public sector reform, housing, poverty, aboriginals, consumer-focused health care performance, equalization, rural policy and much more. Of the nearly 100 recognized think tanks in Canada, Frontier is one of only 5 to make the 2008 global “Go-To Think Tanks” list published by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Mr. Holle has worked extensively with public sector reform and has provided advisory services to various governments across Canada and the United States. His publications have appeared in various newspapers and journals including dozens of newspapers, the National Post and the Wall Street Journal. He has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  He is a member of various organizations including the Mont Pelerin Society, an international organization of classical liberals.

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Cheryl Simpson

Treasurer
Cheryl Simpson is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a Bachelor of Applied Business Administration.

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She has worked in the Accounting field since 1999, and is presently the owner of her own public practice firm. Prior to this Cheryl was a licenced Customs Broker working in both imports and exports for one of the largest firms in Canada. Cheryl has resided in Winnipeg since 1996. She currently holds a position on the Board of Directors of the Winnipeg Rotary Career Symposium.

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Ivan Holloway

Secretary
Ivan is a partner at the Winnipeg law firm of Holloway Thliveris LLP and specializes in construction law, construction litigation and commercial litigation.

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He has practiced since 2003 and is called to the Bars of Manitoba and Alberta.  Ivan has acted as lead counsel in legal proceedings at all levels of court in Manitoba, as well as courts in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Supreme Court of Canada. For recreation, Ivan enjoys hockey, cross-country skiing, travelling, camping, hunting, fishing, gardening, reading, and annoying his wife. Ivan is also an experienced wilderness canoeist and back-country traveler. Ivan has canoed the Grass, Manigotogan, Bloodvein, Churchill, Hayes, Black, Wind, Berens, Ponask, Stull, and portions of the God’s and Red Sucker rivers. Among many other mildly interesting experiences on these trips, Ivan has run class V rapids, engaged in mortal combat with a bear, been ‘nose to nose’ with a bull moose, navigated across a lake in a blinding snow storm, observed numerous pre-contact and fur trade-era artifacts, dined under the midnight sun, told tall tales under the Northern Lights, and generally put to shame any archeologist with the last name “Jones”.

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John Heimbecker

Director
John Heimbecker has been a Vice President at Parrish & Heimbecker since 1999. He graduated from MacMaster University with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Finance) in 1987.

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He began working for Parrish & Heimbecker as a Domestic Feed Grain trader that same year and was promoted to General Manager of Eastern Trading in 1990. In 1999 he was appointed as Vice President in charge of all grain related operations across Canada and the U.S. and presently serves on the Executive Committee of P & H. Other professional activities include Past President of the Canada Ports Clearance Association; Past President of Winnipeg Commodity Clearing Ltd.; Director, Martin Mills Ltd.; Chairman, The Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Feed Grains Committee and Director, Smith Brokerage Ltd.

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Russell Kalmacoff

Director
Mr Kalmacoff is President and CEO of Rockmount Financial Corporation, a Calgary based company that manages investments, develops real estate and has interests in downstream cleantech. Its subsidiary, Rockmount Trust Company has a business plan directed at mortgage banking services for builders and developers.

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Mr Kalmacoff began his post-secondary education at the University of Calgary, successfully completing first year engineering, then transferring to the University of Manitoba for a Bachelor of Commerce, following which he was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley, into the MBA program. At Berkeley, Mr Kalmacoff was a Research Assistant at the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, and assisted in the development of a computer model of the Bay Area in anticipation of the construction of the rapid transit system (BART). Upon graduating with his MBA degree he was awarded a Senior Fellowship from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp and entered the doctoral program at Berkeley. At Manitoba and Berkeley, Mr Kalmacoff did papers in gasoline marketing and competition law. He transferred to the doctoral program at New York University and worked for a year on Wall Street with Salomon Brothers, following which Mr Kalmacoff moved to Toronto where he was employed at the head office of AE LePage. After circulating in all departments, he settled into the mortgage department and among other things, with Canada Packers Pension Fund, designed a breakthrough financing model involving land purchase lease backs and NHA insured leasehold mortgages with participating rent payable to the pension fund in addition to interest. He has been active in community development on Internal Avenue (17th Avenue SE), working closely with the Business Revitalization Zone. He also serves as a Director of the International Avenue Arts & Culture Centre (IAACC) which will be tied to and coordinated with the International Avenue Technology Centre (IATC) which Rockmount is currently developing as a business incubator.

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Clay Dowling

Director
Clay Dowling is President and Chief Executive Officer of Ghost Transportation Services. Prior to forming Ghost Transportation Services in 1987, Mr. Dowling spent 14 years in the transportation industry in a variety of roles from Professional Transport Operator to Regional Management.

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Mr. Dowling’s past involvements in business community groups include: Past President of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, Board member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce for 4 years, Past President of the Saskatoon Transportation Club, AHRDC committee member, Member to ACRE (Action Committee on the Rural Economy) on both the Monitoring Committee and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, committee member to the Prairie-2 Ports Gateway and Inland Port undertaking. President of the North Saskatoon Business Association; twice, Board member of Saskatoon Regional Economic Development authority, charter member of TEC Group 246(The Executive Committee), Public Appointee to the Board of Governors of the Certified General Accountants Association of Saskatchewan, Public Appointee to the Board of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Saskatchewan, Committee member of HR & Nominating Committee of CPA Saskatchewan.

Mr. Dowling was awarded the 2000 Transportation Award of Achievement, for Initiative and Innovation, recognized as a Saskatchewan Man of Influence in 2006 and 2010 by “Sask Business Magazine”, and inducted into the “Saskatchewan Transportation Hall of Fame in 2008 and recognized as “Saskatchewan Business Leader of the Year” at the 2009 Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce ABEX Awards and in 2013 presented the Shirley Ryan Lifetime Achievement Award by the NSBA.

Mr. Dowling earned his Professional Logistician, (P.Log.) designation in 2011.

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Kenneth J. Muys

Director

Mr. Muys is a partner with the firm and has been with D’Arcy & Deacon since 2002. He practices in a broad range of civil litigation cases and has significant experience in creditors and debtor law, bankruptcy and insolvency law, construction law, insurance law and employment law. He has appeared in all levels of court in Manitoba and the Federal Court of Canada as well as before various boards and tribunals. Mr. Muys also has an active real estate practice and achieved the highest standing in Real Estate Transactions at the University of Manitoba Law School.

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Mr. Muys was also a lecturer for seven years at the University of Manitoba Law School in the first year clinical course of
Legal Methods which emphasizes oral advocacy skills. Mr. Muys has also been a lecturer in the second year clinical course
of Introduction to Advocacy at the University of Manitoba Law School.

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Chris Bloomer

Director

Chris is Director and co-founder of Enhanced Optimization Solutions Inc. (“EOSinc”) a private energy technology company with proven proprietary production enhancement and emission reduction processes. From 2015 to 2021 he was the President, CEO and Director of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association a leading and respected advocate for the oil and gas industry.

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As CEO and director of Connacher oil and Gas Ltd from 2013 to 2015, he headed a $1.5 billion restructuring of the oil sands company while growing production. From 2001 to 2013 Chris was a key executive of Petrobank Energy and Resources fulfilling key roles in his tenure as Senior Vice President and COO and CFO from 2004 to 2007. Petrobank operated conventional oil and gas business units in Canada and Colombia as well as Canadian oil sands and became a leading energy company on the TSX.

Other positions include Senior Client Partner with Korn Ferry where he conducted senior executive retain search in domestic and international oil and gas, technology and financial sectors; Co-Founder, President and COO Of Talon Resources an Ecuadorian and Colombia mid-stream project development operation in conjunction with PacAlta Resources; Senior Vice President and COO of Castle Energy Corporation’s Canadian crude marketing and US exploration, natural gas production and pipelines.

Chris began his career, after graduating from the University of Toronto in earth sciences with Shell Canada Ltd. from 1978 to 1993. He moved with increasing responsibility from exploration, economics, corporate planning, oil sands development and operations and natural gas marketing, culminating in the role of Director Liquids Business Center. In this role he was responsible for crude oil and liquid natural gas marketing and business development.

Chris has extensive board of director experience having served on 13 public and private boards in various capacities including Chairman.

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Nick Beyak

Director

Nick Beyak is a Canadian entrepreneur and president of the Beyak Automotive Group. After attaining his Bachelor of Business Administration, he began working alongside his father to understand and operate the family auto dealership. At a very young age Nick purchased the business and has since expanded by acquiring several other dealerships within Northwestern Ontario.

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Nick has dedicated himself to creating a positive workplace that allows his staff to thrive and prosper as a result of their dedication and loyalty. The Beyak Automotive Group and its affiliated companies regularly re-invest in the communities that they do business in by providing financial support to local organizations and community projects. Nick takes great pride in the ability to make a difference for children and families in the area by supporting activities and events that will enhance their personal lives.
As an entrepreneur, Nick recognizes the need for good stewardship and wise management in all aspects of society. He believes this can be achieved by supporting and encouraging good governance while at the same time holding leaders accountable. Throughout his career, Nick has helped provide leadership and oversight by actively volunteering in various community, professional, and municipal organizations.

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