The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation is a private charitable foundation focused on the improvement of public policy in Canada. The foundation is based in Toronto, Ontario, and has two major areas of focus: the Arctic and Water Security. History Early years The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation was founded in 1965 by Walter L. Gordon, his wife, Elizabeth (née Counsell), and his brother, Duncan Gordon. Walter Gordon was a Canadian businessman and politician; he was the Minister of Finance from 1963- 1965 and the president of the Privy Council 1967-1968. Later on in his life he was the Chancellor of York University. Duncan Gordon was a chartered accountant at various Toronto firms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Gordons made a number of contributions to healthcare, the arts and public policy, including donations to hospitals, hospices and art programs in and around the Toronto area. Various Canadian think tanks such as the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (now the Canadian International Council) were supported by the Foundation. In the 1970s the foundation refocused its funding towards Canada's economic independence, and helped create the Committee for an Independent Canada. During the 1970s and 1980s the Foundation also focused much of their attention on peacekeeping, peacemaking and nuclear disarmament. There were many recipients of grants from the Foundation, including Science for Peace, the Club of Rome, Amnesty International, Physicians for Social Responsibility, United Nations Association of Canada, and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. The Foundation also helped to publicize the problem of acid rain in 1981; this contributed to amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1990. After the death of Walter Gordon in 1987, Duncan Gordon asked Pierre Trudeau's former primary secretary and speechwriter Thomas Axworthy to help develop a focus for the foundation with regards to peace-building. After the death of Duncan Gordon later on that year, Walter Duncan's children took over the foundation and headed the board of directors. They also expanded the Foundation from a family to a private foundation model. The directors decided to refocus the Foundation's mandate to concentrate on four areas of interest: secondary education; peace, security and conflict management; the environment and the Arctic. 1990s The Foundation endowed the Walter Gordon Forum on Public Policy in 1990, which continues as an annual event at Massey College with the School of Public Policy and Global Governance at the University of Toronto. After