John Meisel (born October 23, 1923) is a Canadian political scientist, professor, and scholar, and former chairman of the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

. He has written extensively on various aspects of politics, notably on parties, elections, ethnic relations, politics and leisure culture, and, at the beginning of his academic career, international politics. He has been a pioneer in Canada of research on electoral behaviour, political parties and the relationship between politics and leisure culture, particularly the arts. Throughout his career he has examined the cohesion (or its absence) of the Canadian communities. He has also lectured and written about regulation, broadcasting, telecommunications, and the information society.

Career

Meisel was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in October 1923 to Jewish Czech parents. His father worked for Baťa Shoes at its headquarters in Zlín,

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in the 1930s. As the Nazi

occupation of Czechoslovakia Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

became imminent, Baťa sent its Jewish employees out of Czechoslovakia to Bata centres abroad, and the Meisel family moved to

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

and then

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

before settling in Bata's Canadian

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

of Batawa, Ontario in 1942. John Meisel matriculated from

Pickering College Pickering College is an independent, co-educational school for children in grades from Junior Kindergarten through grade 12. It is located in Newmarket, Ontario, Newmarket, Ontario in Canada on a 17-hectare (42 acre) property on Bayview Avenue. The ...

in Newmarket, Ontario. He received his university training at the University of Toronto's Victoria College, and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. He has taught at

Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to: *Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada *Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK **Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950) **Queen's University of Belfast ...

since 1949, where he is a professor

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. He served on the Ontario Advisory Committee on Confederation in 1965. He worked on the 1965 Canadian National Election Study, and was a member of the ICPSR ( Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) Council from 1966 to 1968. In 1975, he was a consultant for the

Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...

's report ''

Crisis of Democracy ''The Crisis of Democracy: On the Governability of Democracies'' is a key report written in 1975 by Michel Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington, and Joji Watanuki for the Trilateral Commission. In the same year, it was republished as a book by the New ...

''. From 1980 to 1983 he was Chairman of the

. From 1992 until 1995, he was the 103rd President of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

. In 1989 he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

; promoted to Companion in 1999. He was the founding editor of ''

The Canadian Journal of Political Science The ''Canadian Journal of Political Science'' (french: Revue canadienne de science politique) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Canadian Political Science Association. In 1968, it was spl ...

'' and of ''

The International Political Science Review The ''International Political Science Review/Revue Internationale de Science Politique'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of political science. The editors-in-chief are Marian Sawer (Australian National University) and There ...

''.

Philanthropy

In addition to his contributions to Canadian university research and public communications, Dr Meisel is known for his philanthropy in Kingston, Ontario. One gift was his 50-hectare property near Crow Lake north of Kingston. This was donated to the Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation in 2000 as a sanctuary of peace and quiet for the residents of Eastern Ontario. The property is called the Meisel Woods Conservation Area. Over the years, modest improvements and public safety features have been installed. A commemorative trail called the Sandi Slater Memorial Walk has been added by the Foundation.

References

External links

Royal Society of Canada biography

John Meisel fonds
at Queen's University Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Meisel, John 1923 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Czechoslovak emigrants to Canada Canadian political scientists Chairpersons of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Companions of the Order of Canada Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston University of Toronto alumni Jews who emigrated to escape Nazism Czech Jews Jewish Canadian writers Academics from Vienna People from Zlín Presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association