Bob Rae

Bob Rae is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and public-policy writer, born in Ottawa in 1948. He is best known for serving as Ontario’s 21st premier from 1990 to 1995 and for a parliamentary career that included eleven elections at the provincial and federal levels between 1978 and 2013. His work has moved between elected office, constitutional and public-policy questions, mediation, and international affairs.

Rae led the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1982 to 1996 and later served as interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. Alongside public service, he has written books on politics and the public good. From Protest to Power reflects on a life in politics and is part of his wider body of political writing. He studied at the University of Toronto, was a 1969 Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, and later completed legal training at the University of Toronto.

From August 2020 until November 2025, Rae was Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as President of the UN Economic and Social Council for its 2024–25 session. His public service has been recognized through appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000 and promotion to Companion of the Order of Canada in 2015, honouring his contributions to Canadian public life and to relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.