Tom Kent, who was Policy Secretary to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, in the back yard of his home in Kingston.Merle Robillard
Tom Kent, the British-born journalist and public policy analyst, who headed up the Royal Commission on Newspapers in 1980-81, died of cardiac arrest on Nov. 15 in Kingston.
He was 89.
Kent, a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War and an editorial writer for The Guardian and The Economist afterward, immigrated to Canada in 1954 to become editor of the Winnipeg Free Press.
Lester Pearson enticed him to Ottawa to help rebuild the Liberal Party in the early 1960s and draft social and economic policy, especially pertaining to health care and pensions.
Kent joined the federal civil service at a senior level in the mid-1960s. After serving as deputy minister of regional expansion, he left Ottawa and moved with his family to Nova Scotia to head up the Cape Breton Development Corp.
In the 1980s, he moved into academe as dean of administrative studies at Dalhousie University and later was an adjunct professor at Queen's University.
Founding editor of Policy Options, a prolific contributor to the commentary pages of The Globe and Mail and other media outlets, he was a firm believer in developing public policy to make people's lives better.
He never retired, and in his last years became particularly interested in another renewal of the Liberal Party and policy options to enhance early childhood education.
Kent leaves his wife, Phyllida, three sons, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A private memorial is planned.
A full obituary is forthcoming.
Sandra Martin