Larry Johnston is the author of Ideologies: An Analytic and Conceptual Approach (1996) and Between Transcendence and Nihilism (1995). A legislative researcher in Toronto since 1998, he was an academic consultant to the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in 2006. He has taught a variety of politics courses at the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and Ryerson University. Born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Larry moved to Toronto to pursue his MA and PhD in political science at the University of Toronto. He taught at U. of T.'s Scarborough Campus and at Ryerson, and wrote and co-authored several introductory political science texts. He was then employed by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the Legislative Research Service. Larry said that music was his 'avocation' and he spent 25 years as organist and choir director at Westway United Church in Etobicoke. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1999 but refused to let his disease define him or dictate how he would live his remaining years. He continued to work, but decided that when he retired he wanted to return to Northern Ontario. The family moved to Richards Landing on St. Joseph Island near the Sault in 2007. After surgery in 2012, Larry retired from full-time employment at the Legislature, but about a year later was back on contract, working remotely at a job he loved.