Canadian Tax Journal: the first decade 1953-1962: 1

Throughout the journal's 50-year history, its articles and features have interpreted and applied current tax law to complex personal and commercial transactions, synthesized and critiqued developing areas of tax law, provided a comparative perspective on tax issues, provided an economic analysis of tax and public finance issues, and addressed the full range of contemporary issues relating to tax reform and administration. Henry White, chair of the board of governors, recalled that the idea of the Foundation was born in conversation between Molyneux Gordon and Kenneth Carter as they returned by train to Toronto from Ottawa, where they had presented a joint brief of the Canadian Bar Association and the Dominion Association of Chartered Accountants to the minister of finance: In the Foundation's first annual report, for the year ending December 31, 1946, Molyneux Gordon, the first chair of the board of governors, explained that [t]he Canadian Tax Foundation has been brought into existence as an independent institution in order to undertake and encourage study and research in the field of taxation and related economic problems and to make disinterested and constructive recommendations regarding policy, legislation or administration upon any matter in which its findings may serve the public interest.2 Over the next few years, the Foundation embarked on an ambitious research agenda. In the report for the year ending 1952, the director, Monteath Douglas, stated: Besides serving as a vehicle for work done in the Foundation's office, the Journal is intended to feature and encourage writing by our members, and contributions from other authorities in Canada and abroad, which will make it a recognized organ of informed opinion in its field.