Dale Thomson

An eminent scholar, a Second World War flying hero and the secretary to former prime minister Louis St. Laurent, retired political science professor Dale Cairns Thomson passed away last week.

A graduate of the University of Alberta and the Sorbonne, Thomson joined the political science department of McGill in 1973 and stayed until his retirement in 1994. His friend and colleague Hudson Meadwell, chair of the department, remembers Thomson as a beloved teacher. "He was someone who had done and seen a lot and had much interest in sharing his experiences.

"When he taught his undergraduate course on Canadian foreign policy, his students always appreciated his own stories from his years in Ottawa. He had the theory and the practice."

He was also fluently bilingual in both official languages (as well as being fluent in German and competent in Spanish and Portuguese) and was one of the few, of his era, who could teach in either. In fact, it was the offer in 1960 of a position with the Université de Montréal that brought the Alberta native from his Ottawa post to Montreal. From there the political scientist moved in 1969 to Washington, D.C. to become the director of the Canadian Studies program at Johns Hopkins University and, later, professor of international relations.

Hired by McGill as vice-principal (planning), Thomson later returned to teaching and writing. A devout federalist who had a compassionate understanding of the grievances and aspirations of francophone Quebecers, Thomson wrote a number of critically acclaimed books on Quebec including Jean Lesage and the Quiet Revolution and Vive le Québec Libre, a study of the events leading to General Charles De Gaulle's infamous declaration. His best-known book is the biography: Louis St. Laurent: Canadian.

Encouraged by his Scottish father and trilingual German mother to pursue his academic interests, Thomson, at age 14, left the family farm in Fort Assiniboine, Alberta to attend high school, 50 kilometres away. Upon graduation, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was posted to England where he spent the war patrolling the skies over the English Channel. His greatest coup was the bombing of a German warship for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

His daring also knew a terrestrial vocation: in 1978, Thomson, already president of the Westmount Municipal Association, ran, unsuccessfully, to be the Liberal candidate in that year's federal election. Concerned by the 1976 victory of the Parti Québecois, Thomson felt that his experience in Ottawa and his understanding of Quebec and Alberta would make him a good candidate. "Just being a professor was not enough. I needed to do more," he said to the Westmount Examiner.

Thomson leaves his wife, Lizanne Ryan Thomson, his brother Walter, sister Peggy Thomson Scott and step-children Wayne, Michèle and Jean-Pierre Guy and Michael and Patrick Winser.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent either to the McGill University in Memory Fund, 3640 Mountain St., Montreal, H3G 2A1 or the ALS Clinic at the Montreal Neurological Hospital, 3801 University St., room 138, Montreal, H3A 2B4.