Robin Mathews (born in Smithers, British Columbia in 1931) is a Canadian poet, professor, and political activist against United States foreign policy.
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Mathews took his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of British Columbia (UBC), having such notable professors as Earle Birney. He did an undergraduate honours thesis at UBC on Matthew Arnold and went on to complete his MA at Ohio State University with a thesis on Henry James. After working for a year as a radio producer for the CBC, Mathews began a PhD at the University of Toronto where he was an unconvinced student of the mythopoeic theorist and critic Northrop Frye. http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5259]
Mathews published his first collection of poems in 1961. In the same decade he shot to national attention by strongly criticizing United States foreign policy and the complementary colonial attitude of Canadian elites. He also spearheaded the movement to have Canadian literature taught in schools, something that was not universally accepted at that time.
He has taught most notably at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
He was involved in literary circles in Toronto, Ontario during his years at the University of Toronto while he was doing his doctoral studies. At Toronto he studied under Northrop Frye and was acquainted with both Margaret Atwood and the renowned Canadian poet Milton Acorn, among others.
In recent decades he has continued to teach, lecture and write numerous volumes of both poetry and prose. His works include the Struggle for Canadian Universities, Treason of the Intellectuals, The Death of Socialism, and Being Canadian in Dirty Imperialist Times. He also published "Canadian Identity," an overview of how Canadian identity is constructed by Liberals, Leftists, Conservatives, religion, economics, and socially, published in 1988.
Mathews currently writes a regular column for the Canadian nationalist organization Vive le Canada.
He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.