Bob Rae
Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy
PC, CC, O.Ont, KC
School of Policy Studies
Hon Bob Rae, PC, CC, O.Ont, KC
Bob Rae has been deeply engaged in a full range of public policy issues at the international, national, and provincial levels of government throughout a career that stretches for more than half a century.
Most recently he served as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York from 2020-2025, including a term as President of the Economic and Social Council, one of only three Canadians elected in their personal capacity to preside over UN Charter bodies since 1945.
Mr. Rae served as Premier of Ontario from 1990-1995, and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011-2013. He was elected to federal and provincial parliaments 11 times between 1978 and 2013. He has been honoured by the alumni of both bodies for his distinguished service.
Mr. Rae was educated in Ottawa, Washington DC, and at the International School of Geneva. and received his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto, an M.Phil in Politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College in Oxford University, and graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1977.
He led the restructuring of the Canadian Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and chaired the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He also wrote 鈥淟essons to be Learned鈥 on the Air India bombing, and 鈥淥ntario a Leader in Learning鈥 - a study of the Ontario higher education system. He was named to the Security and Intelligence Review Committee by then Prime Minister Chr茅tien.
Mr. Rae鈥檚 return to Parliament for the constituency of Toronto Centre in 2008 led to his appointment as Foreign Affairs spokesman for his party, and to his election as interim Leader in 2011. In 1996-99 and between 2013 and 2020 he taught law, politics, public policy at the University of Toronto. He was the Wilson Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University in the University of Toronto from 2016 to 2020. He is the author of nine books and reports on politics and public policy.
Bob Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, and has numerous awards and honorary degrees from around the world. He is married to Arlene Perly Rae, a writer and public advocate on issues affecting women and children. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.