Alexander (Sandy) Craig
33 Lorne, Sherbrooke
Québec, J1M 1C7
Canada
819-566-0540
alexandercraig@videotron.ca

I grew up in Inverness and Glasgow. I came to the Americas via Buenos Aires, where I was foreign correspondent, for the Guardian and Glasgow Herald (they then shared the same foreign service), and other British papers. These included the Economist and the FT, and I returned to the UK to join the latter. But on the advice of Alistair Buchan (John's son), then heading the Institute for Strategic Studies, for which I consulted (on terrorism etc.), I decided to go to teach and do my Ph.D. at Manchester, which I completed in 1973+ Part of that involved returning to Argentina etc via Madrid, where I recorded a 3 1/2 hour interview with Peron (now, thanks to the late Radio Canada International, brought from cassette into the 21st century and CD.) I also interviewed Camara, Illich, Stroessner, Frondizi, Illia, Franco Montoro, Goldenberg, Mindlin, Tierno Galvan (leading opponent of Franco and first Mayor of Madrid after Franco's's death++), Fraga Iribarne(Franco's Minister of Information, then Jefe de Galicia), Nader, Stanfield, Trudeau, Clark, Thurow, Muggeridge, Loach, Connolly, Coltrane, etc. I taught at Edinburgh University for a year, and then I tried to go back to teach at Glasgow University--where I had done my MA in History---but the ongoing invasion halted me in my tracks (Google the Englishing of Scotland, or STV film with same title ("only full-time, permanent staff have access to the archives.") Next stops on my emigration tour were New Mexico, Western Ontario, Ottawa, Vancouver, and, for the present, Region 05, aka Sherbrooke ("ou les immigrants anglais ne parlent pas anglais"---Gaelic settlers), Quebec.

+ with SE Finer, pioneer in the study of lobbying, pressure groups, military in politics etc He went from Manchester, the biggest graduate school in 'government', poli. sci. in the UK, to hold the premier post in politics in Britain, the Gladstone Chair at All Souls, Oxford, beside Charles Taylor et al. In his book Man on Horseback, Sammy put his US counterpart Sam--Clash of Civilizations-- Huntington right--the latter had inexplicably overlooked a central feature of professionalism--CSI--corporate self-interest. I've been running up against it ever since, in academe, journalism, wherever.

++ as well as in Spain, I also worked for Amnesty International in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Mexico, etc.

I came to Canada to teach at the Univ. of Western Ontario, Western European and Latin American Politics, and Journalism. All went well, for six years, but then the revolving door of Western swung yet again--- 5 of us were told "you'll be happier elsewhere." Four of us were not yet Canadian, we all had our PhD's, but more significant was our area of specialization --comparative and international politics. Those, advised Ontario's Council on University Affairs, were out compared with urban and regional politics, Canadian politics, and theory (see the late Sandra Gwyn's piece on this in Saturday Night c. June, July 1978.) So we all emigrated yet again, I back to journalism.--the Economist, BBC, CBC, Chatham House, Economist Intelligence Unit, Fabian Society, Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Le Devoir, Canadian Banker, Newsday, New York Resident, Times Higher Ed.Supp., Glasgow Herald, The Scotsman, Port of Entry.com, P. and J., Performing Arts, International Perspectives, etc. etc., and etc. I've reported from Spitzbergen to Valparaiso, via Tromso, Madrid, Port au Prince, Port of Spain, Martinique, Topolobampo, Chihuaha, Cuernavaca, Panama City, Recife, La Paz, Asuncion, Salta, Santiago de Chile, Mar del Plata, La Plata, James Bay, Long Island, Manhattan, etc., etc

I also do consultancy, for, for example, Task Force on Canadian Unity, North South Institute, Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Bankers Association, Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Development Agency, Scottish Financial Enterprise, etc. I've been invited to speak at various universities--Oxford, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sherbrooke, etc

(Everyone in the family has a Ph.D. My wife studied at one of New York City's best state schools, Bronx Science, then Bryn Mawr, Fulbright to Oxford (St. Hilda's) for her M.A., and Harvard, getting her Ph.D. before she was 25 (in the same PhD class as Margaret Atwood.). I met her in Albuquerque, NM, where I was teaching, and she sweetly gave up her tenure to come to Canada with me, and start a family. Our son did two degrees at McGill, then his PhD at one of the best pure maths centres in North Am, SUNY Stony Brook. On his return to Canada he taught at Bishops until the controversial and mendacious principal kicked him and several others out, to make room for administrators and friends. At present Gordon's teaching Stats as a charge de cours in the business school at Université Laval.)