Douglas House, C.M.

Dr. Doug House is currently Honorary Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. During his academic career, he served as Head of Sociology, Research Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, and President of the Atlantic Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists. Dr. House holds the degrees of BA (Hons) from Memorial University, MA from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, and PhD from McGill University. He is the author of six books and more than a hundred articles, papers and reports. He is currently doing research on Premiers and development policies in Newfoundland and Labrador since Confederation with Canada in 1949; and, in partnership with his son, Adrian, has recently completed a book about the life story of his father, Edgar House, a prominent educator and health administrator.

Dr. House recently completed a five-year term as the independent Chair of the Strategic Partnership Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has had considerable public service experience. His positions have included Chair of the Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment (1985 to 1986), Chair of the Economic Recovery Commission (1989 to 1996), Chair of the Board of Enterprise Newfoundland and Labrador Corporation (1989 to 1993), and provincial Co-Chair of the Task Force on Community Economic Development (1994 to 1995). He has been a key contributor to several influential reports including Building on Our Strengths: The Report of the Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment (1986), Education for Self-Reliance: A Report on Education and Training in Newfoundland (1986), Change and Challenge: A Strategic Economic Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador (1992), An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Economic Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (1995) Community Matters: The New Regional Economic Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (1996) and Our Blueprint for the Future (2003).

From January 2004 to January 2006, Dr. House served as Deputy Minister of the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador; and, from January 2006 to April 2008, as Deputy Minister responsible for provincial development planning within the Executive Council.

Dr. House is also Principal of Doug House Consultants, a small consulting firm that specializes in public policy, the sociology of the oil and gas industry and regional development.

In his personal life, Doug House has been a well-known athlete in Newfoundland and Labrador. A former St. John’s Athlete of the Year, he has been inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Hall of Fame, the Newfoundland and Labrador Tennis Hall of Fame and the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Hall of Fame.

Dr. House lives in St. John’s with his wife, Jeannie House, a lawyer. They have three children: Vanessa, Matthew and Adrian; and five granddaughters: Olivia, Sadie, Sophie, Maeve and Lola.

In 2001, Doug House was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada and, in 2012, was awarded a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal.

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