Herschel Hardin

Who is Herschel Hardin?

Herschel Hardin is a British Columbia-based writer, playwright, commentator and political activist and consultant best known for having contested the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada in 1995.

Hardin grew up in Vegreville, Alberta and attended university at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

He started his professional career as a playwright following his graduation. His best known play is Esker Mike and His Wife, Agiluk.

Hardin worked as a freelance radio broadcaster for both CBC Radio and Radio-Canada. In the 1970s, he established the Association for Public Broadcasting in British Columbia and the Capital Cable Co-operative in Victoria to lobby for the expansion of public, non-commercial broadcasting. He was also active as a consumer advocate opposing cable rate increases.

In the late 1970s, he worked as a Vancouver-based editorial page columnist for The Toronto Star writing on politics and economics.

He also wrote a number of non-fiction books, his first being A Nation Unaware: The Canadian Economic Culture, which explored the key role of public enterprise in the development of Canada's economy and the country's distinctive interregional redistribution.