J. F. (John) Conway

Dr. Conway is a retired Professor of Sociology at the university of Regina.  He has B.A. (Honours) and M.A. degrees in psychology and social psychology and a Ph.D. in political sociology.  In 1986-87 he studied the French language at the Bilingual Centre of the University of Regina and in the Fall of 1987, at Laval University.  He is the author of three books, The West:  The History of a Region in Confederation (first edition, 1984; second edition, 1994; third edition, 2006; fourth edition published as The Rise of the New West: The History of a Region in Confederation, 2014); The Canadian Family in Crisis (first edition, 1990; second edition, 1993; third edition, 1997; fourth edition, 2001; fifth edition, 2003), and Debts to Pay: English Canada and Quebec from the Conquest to the Referendum (first edition, 1992), Des comptes à rendre: Le Canada anglais et le Québec, de la Conquête à l'accord de Charlottetown (1995),  Debts to Pay: A Fresh Approach to the Quebec Question, (second edition, 1997), and Debts to Pay: The Future of Federalism in Quebec, (third edition, 2004); and of monographs on the place of the Prairies in Confederation and on the re-emergence of separatist sentiment in Western Canada during the early 1980s.  He has also published numerous reviews and articles and authored a number of scholarly papers.  His academic interests encompass the social sciences in general while his research interests have tended to focus on the social, political and economic history of both the West and Quebec in Confederation, as well as gender relations and the crisis of the modern family.

Dr. Conway was a regular political columnist for two community newspapers, Prairie Dog in Regina and Planet S in Saskatoon.  He also does research, writing and consulting work for a variety of popular organizations.  He has developed skills in collective bargaining, labour/management relations, and the grievance/arbitration process.  He is an active labour arbitrator.  In 1991 he was elected as a Trustee to the Regina Public School Board, re-elected in 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006, appointed Vice-Chair in 1995-1997, and Chair in 1997-1998, 1998-1999 and 1999-2000.  In 2000-2001 he served as Chair of the Saskatchewan Urban Public Boards’ Caucus, a section of the Saskatchewan School Boards’ Association.  In October 2009, after 18 years as an elected Trustee, he retired undefeated from the Regina Public School Board.

In 1990-91, Dr. Conway was involved in the Charter constitutional challenge of Saskatchewan's electoral boundaries, gaining the formal status of intervenor, presenting written and oral arguments before both the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal (1990) and the Supreme Court of Canada (1991).

Before escaping into academe over thirty-seven years ago, Dr. Conway had experience as an officer cadet at Royal Roads military college, as a psychiatric aide in a mental hospital, as a psychologist intern at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, as a group worker with emotionally disturbed children and as a basic literacy teacher on an Indian reservation.  He is married and has three sons and a daughter.