John Ridpath

John Ridpath, Ph.D. (born 1936) is a Canadian Objectivist intellectual and retired associate professor of economics and intellectual history at York University in Toronto. He also taught courses at Duke University [1]. He attended Toronto's prestigious Upper Canada College (Head Boy, 1955) and then later the University of Toronto, from which he received both an undergraduate degree in Engineering and an MBA. Although he obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of Virginia (1974), he professes to be an intellectual historian, rather than an economist proper. As an academic, despite receiving an award by the Ontario Council of University Faculty Associations for outstanding contribution to university teaching, he was nearly terminated for his radical outspoken views and his avowed hatred of much of York University's faculty. He was forced to retire from his university post in 2001.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute. His writing has appeared in academic publications and in The Intellectual Activist. He is an expert on American history and has promoted capitalism against socialism in debates on college campuses, notably against former premier of Ontario Bob Rae. He continues to lecture in Europe and North America. He has a son, Jefferson Ridpath, named after Thomas Jefferson, of whom he is a great admirer. He lives in Toronto and is a long-time aficionado of Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park.