Barry Cooper (political scientist)

Fraser Barry Cooper FRSC (born 1943) is a Canadian political scientist at the University of Calgary. Before coming to Calgary, he taught at Bishop's University (1968–1970), McGill University, and York University (1970–1981). The winner of a Killam Research Fellowship, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1991, Cooper wrote Action into Nature: An Essay on the Meaning of Technology and he co-authored Deconfederation: Canada without Quebec, in which he argued that Canada would benefit from Quebec separation. He is also the author of the 1999 publication Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science.

He is a fellow at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and a senior research fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. As a regular columnist for the Calgary Herald, Cooper is a frequent commentator on Canadian political issues. He attended high school at Shawnigan Lake School, on Vancouver Island, and received degrees from the University of British Columbia and Duke University.

Cooper is an advocate of climate denialism, Quebec separatism, Western Canadian separatism, with Alberta as an independent, sovereign jurisdiction within Canada.