Media Releases

Bob Rae joins the University of Toronto

July 4, 2013

TORONTO, ON — The Hon­ourable Bob Rae has joined the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to as a Dis­tin­guished Senior Fel­low at the School of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy and Gov­er­nance (SPPG), effec­tive July 1.

“Obvi­ous­ly Bob Rae brings an incred­i­ble wealth of pol­i­cy exper­tise and expe­ri­ence in pub­lic ser­vice,” said Mark Sta­bile, direc­tor of the SPPG. “This is a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty for our stu­dents to learn from one of Canada’s most dis­tin­guished polit­i­cal lead­ers. We look for­ward to him tak­ing part in many of the school’s activ­i­ties, meet­ing with fac­ul­ty and stu­dents and par­tic­i­pat­ing in cours­es.”

Rae announced his res­ig­na­tion as the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Toron­to Cen­tre on June 19. In addi­tion to his role as Dis­tin­guished Senior Fel­low, Rae will be chief nego­tia­tor for First Nations in talks with the Ontario gov­ern­ment about devel­op­ment of the Ring of Fire, an area in the James Bay Low­lands of North­ern Ontario where min­ing explo­ration is under way. He recent­ly served as inter­im leader and for­eign affairs crit­ic for the fed­er­al Lib­er­al par­ty and was the 21st pre­mier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995. He has been elect­ed nine times to fed­er­al and provin­cial par­lia­ments.

Rae’s asso­ci­a­tion with U of T dates back to his under­grad­u­ate years at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege. He grad­u­at­ed with a Bach­e­lor of Arts degree in 1969, fol­lowed by a degree in law in 1977. Dur­ing Rae’s final year as an under­grad­u­ate, his strong aca­d­e­m­ic and extracur­ric­u­lar record led him to be award­ed a pres­ti­gious Rhodes Schol­ar­ship to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford where he stud­ied under renowned polit­i­cal philoso­pher Isa­iah Berlin.

Rae obtained a B.Phil, a grad­u­ate degree from Oxford in 1971 and was named a Queen’s Coun­sel in 1984. He has received numer­ous hon­orary degrees – includ­ing one from U of T in 1999 – and awards for his pub­lic ser­vice. He was appoint­ed to Her Majesty’s Privy Coun­cil for Cana­da in 1998 and was named an Offi­cer of the Order of Cana­da in 2000 and an Offi­cer of the Order of Ontario in 2004.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Mark Sta­bile
U of T School of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy & Gov­er­nance
mark.stabile@utoronto.ca
+33 6 20 28 27 66
Note: is in Paris, France (six hours ahead of EST)

Kim Luke
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Fac­ul­ty of Arts & Sci­ence
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
kim.luke@utoronto.ca