Laxer was born in
Montreal,
Quebec, on 22 December 1941[8] and was the son of Edna May (née Quentin) and
Robert Laxer, a psychologist, professor, author, and political
activist.[9] His father was
Jewish and his mother was from a
Protestant family. Both were members of the
Communist Party of Canada and its public face, the
Labor-Progressive Party, with Robert Laxer being a national organizer for the party. The Laxers left the party, along with many other members, following
Khrushchev's Secret Speech revealing
Joseph Stalin's crimes, and the
1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. James Laxer wrote about his experiences growing up during this period in his memoir Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism.[10] His father came to serve as a significant influence on his political worldview.[11]
Laxer married three times. He married Diane Taylor in 1965, from whom he was divorced in 1969.[18][better source needed] He married Krista Mäeots[6] in 1969 with whom he had two children:
Michael and Katherine (known as "Kate").[18][19] They were
separated at the time of her death in 1978.[19][20][21] Laxer married Sandra Price[22] in 1979 with whom he had two more children: Emily and Jonathan.[18][19]
In 1971, Laxer ran for the
leadership of the federal NDP and shocked the convention by winning one-third of the vote on the fourth and final ballot against party stalwart
David Lewis.[13][27] The Waffle was ultimately forced out of the NDP and briefly became a political party under the name Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada.[13][28] Laxer and other Wafflers unsuccessfully ran for
Parliament in 1974.[29] This electoral failure led to the Waffle's demise,[30] and Laxer concentrated on his work at
York University, where he was a professor of
political science for 47 years,[19] and in broadcasting.
In 1981, he was hired as director of research for the federal NDP, but left in controversy in 1983 when he published a report critiquing the party's economic policy as being "out of date".[31][32]
Academic, writer, and broadcaster
Laxer hosted The Real Story, a nightly half-hour current affairs program on
TVOntario in the early 1980s. He also variously wrote a column and
op-ed pieces for the Toronto Star from the 1980s until shortly before his death, as well as op-ed pieces for The Globe and Mail.[13][33] He also played "Talleyrand", a mock political insider, on
CBC Radio's Morningside in the 1980s.[34]
Laxer co-wrote and presented the five-part
National Film Board documentary series Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada in 1986, which examined Canada's economic and political relationships with the United States[13][35] and Canada's place in the changing global economy.[36] Laxer and his co-writer won a
Gemini Award in 1988 for Best Writing in an Information/Documentary Program or Series for episode one of Reckoning titled "In Bed with an Elephant".[37][38] The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation refused to air the series due to its critical view of
free trade with the United States, which was being negotiated at the time, and it aired instead on
TVOntario and other educational channels in Canada as well as a number of
PBS stations in the
United States.[35][39]
Laxer died suddenly and unexpectedly in
Paris of heart-related problems on 23 February 2018 while in Europe researching a book on Canada's role in the
Second World War.[19][13][45]
^"Jim Laxer". Toronto: York University. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^"Laxer Chosen CUP National President". Queen's Journal. Vol. 92, no. 23. Kingston, Ontario: Alma Mater Society. 8 January 1965. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
^
abcHarris, James F. (2014).
"James Robert Laxer". The Harris Family Historical Database. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
Azzi, Stephen (1999). Walter Gordon and the Rise of Canadian Nationalism. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
ISBN978-0-7735-1840-7.
——— (2012). "The Nationalist Moment in English Canada". In Campbell, Lara;
Clément, Dominique;
Kealey, Gregory S. (eds.). Debating Dissent: Canada and the Sixties. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 213–228.
ISBN978-1-4426-1078-1.
Bullen, John (1983). "The Ontario Waffle and the Struggle for an Independent Socialist Canada: Conflict within the NDP". Canadian Historical Review. 64 (2): 188–215.
doi:
10.3138/CHR-064-02-04.
ISSN0008-3755.
S2CID154732043.
Erickson, Lynda; Laycock, David (2015). "Party History and Electoral Fortunes, 1961–2003". In Laycock, David; Erickson, Lynda (eds.). Reviving Social Democracy: The Near Death and Surprising Rise of the Federal NDP. Vancouver: UBC Press. pp. 13ff.
ISBN978-0-7748-2852-9.
Fleming, R. B. (2010). Peter Gzowski: A Biography. Toronto: Dundurn Press.
ISBN978-1-77070-539-5.
Gonick, Cy (1987). The Great Economic Debate: Failed Economics and a Future for Canada. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company.
ISBN978-0-88862-701-8.
Howlett, Michael; Netherton, Alex; Ramesh, M. (1999). The Political Economy of Canada: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-541348-9.
Isitt, Benjamin (2011). Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948–1972. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
ISBN978-1-4426-4194-5.
Laxer, James (1967). French-Canadian Newspapers and Imperial Defence, 1899–1914 (MA thesis). Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University.
OCLC933108264.
——— (1996). In Search of a New Left: Canadian Politics after the Neoconservative Assault. Toronto: Viking.
ISBN978-0-670-85901-6.
——— (2003). The Border: Canada, the US and Dispatches From the 49th Parallel. Toronto: Anchor Canada (published 2010).
ISBN978-0-385-67290-0.
——— (2004). Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre.
ISBN978-1-55365-073-7.
——— (2012). Tecumseh and Brock: The War of 1812. Toronto: House of Anansi Press.
ISBN978-1-77089-195-1.
Miller, Carman (1993). Painting the Map Red: Canada and the South African War, 1899–1902. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
ISBN978-0-7735-0913-9.