Michael Kelway Oliver
Michael Kelway Oliver O.C., the son of an Anglican priest, was born in North Bay, Ont. on Feb 2, 1925. His father moved to Montreal to become rector at St. Steven’s in Lachine and then spend 28 years at St. Matthias’ Church in Westmount where Oliver was raised. During the Second World War Oliver served with the 18th battery 2nd Canadian Anti Tank regiment. When the war ended he enrolled in McGill University where he obtained his arts degree in 1948. He won a scholarship to study at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year and returned to McGill for his M.A.in 1950 and his PHd. in 1957.
He taught at United College in Winnipeg and at Laval University before joining McGill as a political science professor in 1957.
Oliver was among the first to anticipate the rise of Quebec nationalism a decade before the Parti Quebecois was started, presciently warning as early as 1957 that a nationalist movement in French Canada was afoot “which will affect the Roman Catholic Church and may have a profound effect on Canadian politics of the future.”
When the New Democratic Party was founded Oliver helped shape the party’s policy and in 1961 was unanimously elected the NDP’s first president. Oliver became McGill’s academic vice-president in 1966.
In 1972 he was appointed president of Carleton University in Ottawa, a position he held for seven years.Between 1993 and 1996 Oliver was president of the United Nations Association in Canada. The charitable organizations promotes the work of the U.N. in Canada.
