2003 Paul Thomas
2003 VANIER MEDAL AWARDED TO DR. PAUL G. THOMAS
Paul Thomas and Judy Roger (IPAC President)
The Vanier Medal Awarded to Public-Spirited Scholar
TORONTO, August 26, 2003 – Paul Thomas, an outstanding teacher whose academic writings and research have helped to advance Canada’s public service, has been honoured with The Vanier Medal of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC).
Thomas, who is Duff Roblin Professor of Government in the Political Studies Department at the University of Manitoba, received the award today at IPAC’s annual conference. The Vanier Medal is a mark of distinction and exceptional achievement, one of the highest forms of recognition for Canadian public administrators.
Professor Thomas has had a 33-year career in teaching and public administration. He is widely cited for his analyses and interpretations of the activities of federal and provincial institutions. His writings have revealed how institutions operate and how participants in the public sector cope with change.
Described as a “gentleman of the old school” with a commitment to rolling up his sleeves to help with public issues, Professor Thomas has led or participated in public inquiries dealing with health care, economic growth, urban governance, electoral reform and access to information. Recommendations from these inquiries have led to changes in public services and governance. As a member of the City of Winnipeg Act Review Committee in 1984-85, he contributed to significant improvements in Winnipeg’s legislative framework.
He served in 1999-2000 as an adviser to three committees of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada on the topics of accountability to Parliament, human resource management reform in the federal public service and performance measurement and reporting in government.
In Manitoba, Professor Thomas was chair of the board of the Manitoba Telephone System in 1987-89, and contributed to its subsequent privatization. As chair of the Review and Implementation Committee for the Inquest Report on the Pediatric Surgery Deaths at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, in 2000-01, he wrote the 187-page report to the health minister on this difficult and contentious issue.
At present he is chair of the Regional Planning Advisory Committee of the Government of Manitoba, chair of the Advisory Council for the Order of Manitoba, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Winnipeg and a consultant to the Manitoba Aboriginal Justice Implementation Committee and the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.
Professor Thomas received a Ph.D in political economy from the University of Toronto in 1976. He received earlier degrees from the University of Manitoba, and has spent his academic career at that university. In 1999 he was appointed as the university’s first Duff Roblin Professor in Government.
As a teacher, Professor Thomas has won several awards for excellence. He has influenced countless students of public administration, many of whom now hold senior positions. He founded the Manitoba Legislative Internship Program in the 1970s, and also helped establish and manage the Joint Master’s Program in Public Administration at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg.
Professor Thomas is co-author of a widely used textbook, Introduction to Canadian Public Administration: Some Problematic Perspectives (Toronto: Prentice Hall, 1987, 2nd ed., with Professor R. Adie), along with about 50 scholarly articles or book chapters and numerous conference papers and workshop presentations.
He shaped the intellectual contours of public administration as editor for six years (1993-99) of Canadian Public Administration, the academic journal published by IPAC. He has informed the public, too, as a respected political commentator on public governance and politics on television in Manitoba.
Professor Thomas received the 1994 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Distinguished Public Service, which is given by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (Manitoba Chapter). In 1995 he was named a Senior Fellow of the Canadian Centre for Management Development in Ottawa. The Vanier Medal of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada was created in 1962, in honour of Canada's second Canadian-born Governor General, the Right Honourable Georges-P. Vanier. The medal is awarded annually by IPAC to a distinguished public servant who has made a significant contribution in the field of public administration in Canada.
IPAC is a non-profit organization, established in 1947, concerned with the theory and practice of public management. Its scope covers governance from the global to the local level. Based in Toronto, IPAC has 17 regional groups across the country providing networks and forums to exchange ideas on trends, practices and innovations in public administration.
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For more information, please contact:
Joseph Galimberti, Executive Director, IPAC, 416-924-8787, jgalimberti@ipaciapc.ca
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