Speaker Profile
John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul is an internationally recognized author and thinker
Mr. Saul is a Companion in the Order of Canada and a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He is the Co-Chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Founder and Honourary Chair of French for the Future, Chair of the LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium, Patron of PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network) and Former President and now honorary patron of Canadian PEN.
An essayist and novelist, Saul’s writings are aimed at a new humanism through what he calls responsible individualism. His philosophical trilogy and its meditation —Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, The Doubter’s Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense, The Unconscious Civilization and On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism—has impacted political thought in many countries. His recent essay, The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World, confronts the reigning ideology known as globalization. His novels and essays have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
He has received many national and international awards for his writing, including the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction. He is the General Editor of the Penguin Extraordinary Canadians series. His 14 honourary degrees range from McGill and the l’Université d’Ottawa to Herzen State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, he received the Pablo Neruda International Presidential Medal of Honor.
His latest book is A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada.