Participant/Observer

Some engage in politics; others observe it, but the author of this political memoir is among the few that have had the chance to do both. In these pages, Henry Milner shares his ome engage in politics; others observe it, but the author of this political memoir is among experiences as a student and community activist, an anglophone insider and strategist in the Parti Qubcois, and a close observer of social democracy in practice.

Milner was born in a bunker in American occupied Germany. His parents, who had survived the war in the USSR, moved the family to Canada in 1951. Earning a BA from McGill and his MA and PhD at Carleton, he spent his teaching career first at Vanier College and then based at the University of Montreal.

His writings, notably in Inroads, the Canadian Journal of Opinion, which he and John Richards founded in 1991, have led to opportunities to teach and conduct research in Scandinavia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Findings from these experiences have found their way into public policy discussion in Canada through the media and public forums. Milner's recent focus has been on civic literacy, on the democratic institutions that underly social and economic progress, working closely with the movements seeking to reform our voting system.

Participant/Observer is a political autobiography of a generation, one that reached maturity in the 1960s and 1970s, told through one person's story. In concluding, Milner holds out hope that this account of his generations' successes-and failures-can be of use to current generations as they face the threat posed by populist and authoritarian forces, most dramatically to the capacity of democracy to meet the challenge of climate change.