Ron Dart

Ron Dart
Ron Dart
Born
Ronald Samuel Dart

October 24, 1950
OccupationAcademic • author
Known for
  • Historical writing on the philosophy and careers of Thomas Merton and George Grant
  • Writings on Red Toryism in Canada
Board member ofThomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland
SpouseKarin Dart
ChildrenKevin Dart
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Lethbridge (BA)
Regent College (MCS, DCS)
University of British Columbia (MA)
ThesisThe Spirituality of John Cassian
Academic advisorsJames M. Houston
Ian Rennie
InfluencesGeorge Grant
Kenneth Leech
Stephen Leacock
Thomas Merton
Academic work
School or traditionAnglo-Catholicism
Presbyterianism
Red Toryism
InstitutionsUniversity of the Fraser Valley
Main interestsPatristicshistory of philosophypolitical history

Ronald Samuel Dart, BA (Lethbridge), DCS, MCS (Regent College), MA (UBC), is a university professor and author. In 2022, he was hooded as Doctor of Ministry and Humanities (honoris causa) by St. Stephen's University (New Brunswick).

Dart teaches in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. "He has become the most important writer about the Red Tory tradition in Canada."

He has authored forty books that deal with the interface between literature, spirituality and politics, including Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades. He is one of the primary experts on the life and thought of both Stephen Leacock and George Grant and their place in the pantheon of traditional Canadian conservative thought.

He is a board member of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada and serves as the Canadian contact for the Evelyn Underhill Association and the Bede Griffiths Sangha. He has also penned numerous articles on Mountaineering.

He contributes regularly to the High Tory alongside the Clarion Journal and The Owl: George Grant Journal, where he became one of the main traditional Tory voices and critic of the "new conservatism" of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada.