Robert Mendel Laxer (September 10, 1915 – October 24, 1998) Robert Laxer graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1936 and a Master of Arts degree in 1939.
Laxer joined the Communist Party of Canada during the Great Depression. In 1940, he married Edna May Quentin, a social worker and daughter of a Methodist minister.
He worked as a freelance journalist until 1941 when he joined the Canadian Army and served during the Second World War. and, in particular, Canadian ownership of the oil industry. He was appointed by Pierre Trudeau to the board of directors of Petro-Canada which had been created as a state-owned crown corporation, in part, due to Laxer's arguments.