Robert Bryce

Who was Robert Bryce?

Robert Broughton Bryce, PC CC FRSC was a Canadian civil servant.

After graduating with engineering degree from the University of Toronto, Bryce undertook graduate studies in economics at Cambridge, where he was influenced by the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. In the fall of 1935, he left Britain for Harvard where, as a graduate student, he introduced Keynesian economics in the United States, with the help of fellow Canadian Lorie Tarshis. According to John Kenneth Galbraith, Joseph Schumpeter "called Keynes Allah and Bryce his Prophet".

Bryce started working for the Department of Finance in 1938, later becoming assistant deputy minister of Finance and Secretary to the Treasury Board. In 1954, he became clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet. He retired in 1968 as deputy minister of Finance.

He is the author of Maturing in Hard Times: Canada's Department of Finance Through the Great Depression. His other book, Canada and the Cost of World War II: The International Operations of Canada's Department of Finance, 1939-1947, edited by Matthew J. Bellamy, was published after his death.