Researchers

I was born in St-Hyacinthe, close to Montreal and grew up in McMasterville which is even closer to Montreal (and not surprisingly I am a fan of the Montreal Canadians and the Montreal Impact).  I decided to attend McGill University for my undergraduate studies even though I was not fluent in English at the time.  It sort of made sense at the time to spend another 3 years in school and to end up truly bilingual.  I spent my first two years at the Macdonald College campus in scenic Ste-Anne de Bellevue and my last year at the Montreal campus.  By then, I had decided that I was too young to have a real job.  In August of 1983, I went to Iowa State University where I had been admitted into the Master's program.  My long curly hair and clothes made me easily recognizable in Ames...  I enjoyed very much my first year (great teachers, great friends, cheap beer and plenty of hockey, soccer, broomball, tennis...) and decided to write my Ph.D qualifying exams in microeconomics and macroeconomics.  I succeeded and I ended up not doing a Master's degree.  While I was committing myself to do a Ph.D, I was also committing on the personal front.  I got married to the beautiful Gale West at the end of 1984.  Gale was doing a Ph.D in Sociology and in Beckerian style, we sold my car (Gale's was nicer) and bought a computer!  We were among the first to have a hard drive (we are that old).  I began my academic career at the University of Guelph in Ontario in February of 1988.  I was 26 years old and I had never taught before.  I believe that most if not all of the students who took my graduate trade course in the summer of 1988 were older than I. Five other assistant professors had been hired at about the same time. It was a great environment to be in. 

We moved to Laval University in Quebec City in 1991.  The late Robert Romain and Rémy Lambert were already there and I enjoyed very much discussing new ideas with them.  Rémy and Robert were the driving forces behind the development of the Center for Research on the Economics of Agri-food (CREA).  I have had several good students over the years from various programs (economics, agricultural economics, political science, international relations), but I must say that Jean-Philippe Gervais was exceptional as a Master's student and later as a colleague and collaborator.  I am also very fortunate to have collaborated with Harvey Lapan who as one of my teachers at ISU got me hooked on international trade.  I took various leadership roles over the years (e.g., editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, President of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, holder of a Canada Research Chair and Director of a research center) while trying to do empirical and theoretical research in International Trade, Industrial Organization, Consumer Economics and Production/Environmental Economics. 

Gale and I have a son Benjamin who practices free-style skiing and soccer, a daughter Sophie who is into soccer, volleyball and theatre and two small dogs, Frou Frou and Ben-G who make sure that we get up around 6 am every day.