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VANCOUVER (CP) - Michael Walker, who turned the Fraser Institute from a backwater think-tank into one of the loudest voices for free-market economics in Canada, will step down by the end of the year after 30 years at the head of the organization.

Walker, who will turn 60 in September, said Thursday it is time to bring new ideas to the job of executive director.
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Jim Stanford, economist for the Canadian Auto Workers union, expressed mixed feeling about Walker on Thursday.

"Michael Walker was a master at applying research as a weapon in the political battle of ideas," Stanford said.

"I think we on the left could learn a thing or two from the salesmanship and the entrepreneurship which Michael Walker brought to the policy research field."

However, "His efforts to try and portray the Fraser Institute as a serious think-tank, as an academically qualified think-tank, have been generally a failure," Stanford said.

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"We haven't had a single instance where people have been able to say, 'You were wrong, Fraser Institute."

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Originally posted by sock puppet:
He's right, there hasn't been a single instance - they've been innumerable.

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Dr. Peter Glynn, the chair of Saskatchewan's Surgical Care Network takes exception to the numbers released by the Fraser Institute. His group was set up to oversee waiting lists for surgery. He says the actual waiting time for most surgeries is less than half of what is cited in the Fraser Institute study.

"What I'm really quite concerned about is what is being portrayed in the Fraser Institute study - (it) is overstating the problem," said Glynn.

Glynn says the Fraser Institutes' figures depict the worst case situations, such as hip replacements. Instead of 27 weeks on average, waiting times for non-emergency surgeries are averaging 9.2 weeks, he says.

He also says that the survey is based on responses from only 40 percent of specialists in the province.

Heath Minister John Nilson says the goal of the Fraser Institute is to discredit Medicare and promote for-profit health care.

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Not to mention...

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In 1999, the Fraser Institute raised the ire of scientists and health professionals when it sponsored two conferences on the tobacco industry. They were titled "Junk Science, Junk Policy? Managing Risk and Regulation" and "Should government butt out? The pros and cons of tobacco regulation." The institute was accused of putting its credibility on the line by allying itself with the tobacco industry's efforts to undermine credible scientific research.

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And here's a case were the Fraser Institute itself seemed to say, 'You were wrong, Fraser Institute':

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While the Fraser Institute has released a report calling for marijuana's legalization, it now says it doesn't endorse the report's views.

A headline on a press release quoted the right-wing think tank as saying pot should be legalized so governments could tax the revenue.
However, the institute later said that was wrong and the report only reflected the view of its author, Steve Easton, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

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[ 08 April 2005: Message edited by: Albireo ]