Dr. David Leadbeater was raised in the British Columbia Interior and Alberta and was a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada until 2021. His teaching and research interests include the economic development of Canada, urban economics, labour economics, and colonialism and economic theory. He holds degrees from the University of Alberta, Oxford University, and the University of Toronto. His recent research focuses on mining communities and hinterland-colonial conditions in Northern Ontario, and on the Ontario university system. His published work as author and editor includes Northern Ontario in Historical Statistics, 1871-2021 (2024), Resources, Empire and Labour (2014), and Mining Town Crisis (2008).
