Few in and around the present-day Department will have known Ron Blair, but those who did remember him fondly. Ron passed away in September.
Ronald Scott Blair grew up in Paisley, Scotland and came to Canada shortly after completing an MA in History from the University of Glasgow. After teaching at a private school he joined the new Journalism programme at Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before coming to the Department of Political Economy in 1963. When Scarborough College (now UTSC) opened in 1964, Ron was one of its first faculty and soon established himself as an outstanding teacher, specializing in Canadian politics. Adept at administration, he was Chair of Social Sciences in the 1970s and 1980s. He retired in 1998.
Ron often said that, holding a UofT MA in political science but no PhD (not uncommon for those hired in that era) and with few publications to his name, he’d never be hired these days. Doubtless he was right but passing him over would have been a great loss. A gifted teacher whose lectures combined erudition with dry wit, he was fearsomely well-read, especially in Canadian and British politics. His conversations were sprinkled with insightful, if often obscure references (“Of course Lord Haldane argued that the BNA Act ...”) proffered in an offhand manner that assumed everyone was as well-informed as he. Ron was of the generation of political scientists who knew politicians and backroom movers and shakers, much to the benefit and enjoyment of his students who learned not just theory but real-life politics in his classes. His practical knowledge of politics animated the TVO interview programme he co-hosted with Toronto Star journalist Sally Barnes.
Among Ron’s special interests was Parliament, so it was natural that the Canadian Political Science Association tapped him to be founding Academic Director of the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme in 1976. It was no sure thing that the programme would survive in Queen’s Park’s hot-house atmosphere, but Ron’s guidance set it on the road to success and it continues to thrive.
A wonderful raconteur, he could bring those around him to paroxysms of laughter as he held forth on his misadventures, displaying only the slightest hint of a smile. Very much a family man, Ron was devoted to his three children and to his wife, Margaret, who spent much of her childhood in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War Two.
Ron’s teaching engaged and inspired generations of Scarborough students. He was truly one of a kind and in the words of a long-time staff person, “a lovely man”.
- Professor Graham White