Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian politician and diplomat who served as the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations from 2020 to 2025. Rae previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1982 to 1996, and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. Between 1978 and 2013, he was elected 11 times to federal and provincial parliaments. Since December 2025, Rae has been serving as the Visitor of Massey College.
Rae was a New Democratic Party (NDP) member of Parliament (MP) from 1978 to 1982. He then moved to provincial politics, serving as leader of the Ontario NDP from 1982 to 1996. After leading his party to victory in the 1990 provincial election, he served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995. He was the first person to lead a provincial NDP government east of Manitoba. While in office, he brought forward initiatives which were unpopular with traditional NDP supporters, such as the Social Contract Act. Rae's government was heavily defeated in the 1995 provincial election. His subsequent disagreement with the leftward direction of the NDP led him to resign his membership.
In 2006, Rae joined the Liberals; he had previously been a Liberal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That year, Rae was a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party, but was eliminated after placing third on the third ballot. He returned to the House of Commons in 2008 as a Liberal MP after winning a by-election. He was re-elected in the 2008 federal election. Rae ran again for party leadership in the 2009 leadership race, but withdrew in December 2008. He was re-elected in the 2011 federal election and was named interim leader of the Liberal Party after Michael Ignatieff resigned his leadership; he served in that position until Justin Trudeau's election as party leader in 2013.
In June 2013, Rae announced his resignation from Parliament in order to become chief negotiator for James Bay area First Nations in their negotiations with the provincial government. His resignation became effective that July. Rae joined Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, a law firm specializing in representing aboriginal clients, as a partner in 2014. He sits as an advisor to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission. Rae was Canada's special envoy to Myanmar from October 2017 to April 2018 and advised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Rohingya crisis. He is also a Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and a Distinguished Fellow at the Munk School at the University of Toronto. In July 2020, Rae's appointment as the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations was announced by Prime Minister Trudeau. He served until November 2025.
Family Rae was born in Ottawa, Ontario. His parents were Lois Esther (George) and Saul Rae, an eminent Canadian career diplomat who had postings in Washington, Geneva, New York, Mexico, and The Hague. Rae's paternal grandparents immigrated from Scotland, and his mother had English ancestry. Rae was raised as an Anglican. As an adult, he found out that his paternal grandfather was Jewish and was from a family of Lithuanian immigrants to Scotland.
Rae's elder brother John A. Rae (born 1945) was an executive vice-president and director of Power Corporation and a prominent member of the Liberal Party. He was also an adviser to Jean Chrétien when he was Indian Affairs Minister in 1968, and then again from 1993 until 2003 while Chrétien was prime minister. Rae's younger brother, David, was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1987. Despite a bone marrow transplant from his brother, he died of leukemia in 1989 at age 32.
Rae learned of his family's Jewish origins in 1968. The revelation had a strong impact on him: he sought to explore his Jewish culture, dated Jewish girls exclusively and ultimately married a Jewish woman. Upon his marriage to Arlene Perly Rae, Rae agreed to raise their three daughters in his wife's Jewish faith. Rae is a member of Holy Blossom Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Toronto.
His uncle, the late Jackie Rae, was an entertainer and former host of The Jackie Rae Show on CBC and also performed on British television.
Early career Rae attended Crichton Street Public School in Ottawa, Horace Mann Public School and Gordon Junior High School in Washington, D.C. (1956–1961), and the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. His first job was a paper route delivering the Washington's Evening Star newspaper, which he later described as "one of the worst newspapers in the history of modern journalism". His customers included Richard Nixon and Estes Kefauver. Rae later joked that Kefauver gave him a $20 tip one Christmas, whereas Pat Nixon only gave him a quarter and made him more sympathetic to Democrats from that moment.Rae, Protest to Power, pp. 22, 25.
Rae graduated with honours from University College, University of Toronto, where he also later received his law degree. Michael Ignatieff, who later became Rae's rival for the Liberal Party leadership, was his roommate for a time.Rae, Protest to Power, p. 28. He first became involved in politics by volunteering on Trudeau's 1968 Liberal leadership campaign, and later worked on Liberal Charles Caccia's campaign in the 1968 federal election.Rae, Protest to Power, pp. 34–35. Rae and Caccia have remained personal friends through their political careers. During his final year as an undergraduate, Rae was a student representative on the Bissell Commission on University Government.Rae, Protest to Power, p. 33.
As a result of his strong student record, Rae was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he studied at Balliol College, Oxford under Isaiah Berlin.Rae, Protest to Power, pp. 38–40. His Bachelor of Philosophy thesis criticized the cultural imperialism of early Fabian socialists in the United Kingdom, such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb. During his period in Britain he became involved with social work, helping squatters find rental accommodation in London. He attributes the experience with helping him develop a deepened commitment to social justice and, on his return to Canada in 1974 Rae joined the social democratic NDP. He worked in labour law during the mid-1970s.
Political career Federal New Democratic MP
Rae was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a 1978 by-election, defeating Progressive Conservative Tom Clifford by 420 votes in the Toronto riding of Broadview. Rae won the NDP nomination over former MP John Paul Harney and activist Kay Macpherson.Rae, Protest to Power, p. 57.
He won a full term in the 1979 federal election from the renamed riding of Broadview—Greenwood, and gained national prominence as the NDP's finance critic. When Clark's proposed budget came up for debate that December, Rae introduced a subamendment stating that the House of Commons did not approve of the budget. It was this motion's passage that toppled Clark's government after only eight months.
Rae was elected to parliament for a third time in the 1980 federal election, and married Arlene Perly days later."Prize awaits Rae, regardless of what happens today", The Globe and Mail, February 18, 1980, p. 8. In caucus, he sided with party leader Ed Broadbent in supporting patriation of the Canadian Constitution with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Rae, Protest to Power, pp. 75–76. He also articulated his party's policy on the Canadian Bank Act, and criticized the Bank of Canada's high interest rate policy."Critics offer amendments to Bank Act", The Globe and Mail, June 3, 1980, p. B4; "Lower rates in U.S. hurt Canada, MP says", The Globe and Mail, July 11, 1980, p. 1.
Ontario NDP leader During the same period Rae was in Ottawa, the Ontario New Democratic Party was suffering from internal disunity under the leadership of Michael Cassidy. Cassidy resigned as leader after a poor performance in the 1981 provincial election, and a movement began to draft Rae as his replacement.Rae, Protest to Power, pp. 78–79. Rae initially declined a request from a provincial delegation led by Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Dave Cooke, but reconsidered after further entreaties from former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis and many others.
Eleven of the party's 21 MPPs endorsed his candidacy, as did much of the labour movement. Rae's supporters in caucus were Marion Bryden, Brian Charlton, Dave Cooke, Odoardo Di Santo, Tony Grande, Donald C. MacDonald, Robert Mackenzie, Elie Martel, Ed Philip, George Samis and Mel Swart."Rae's skills earn ex-leader's support", by Sylvia Stead, The Globe and Mail, January 14, 1982, p. 3; "Labor delegates looking to Rae as NDP leader", by Wilfred List and Sylvia Stead, The Globe and Mail, January 28, 1982, p. 18. He was the most centrist candidate in the contest, and easily defeated Richard Johnston and Jim Foulds at a leadership convention in early 1982.
When Rae won the NDP leadership, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party had governed Ontario since 1943 and was widely regarded as unbeatable. Rae was strongly critical of the Bill Davis government's approach to social issues, and used his acceptance speech to describe the PC Party's Ontario as "Toryland", "essentially a country club in which women and people of colour were not welcome". His comments were criticized by some in the media, though Rae himself would later write that his words seemed "particularly apt" in retrospect and "certainly aroused an angry response which often means a target has been hit".Rae, Protest to Power, pp. 84–85.
First session
After Rae won the party leadership, there was a delay of several months before he was able to contest a by-election to enter the Ontario legislature. Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) Jim Renwick, Marion Bryden and Tony Grande all declined to relinquish their seats, before former party leader Donald C. MacDonald agreed to stand down in the York South constituency.Rae, Protest to Power, p. 85; Sylvia Stead, "Rae expects tough fight from Tories, Liberals in by-election", The Globe and Mail, July 7, 1982, P5. Rae defeated Liberal candidate John Nunziata, a York councillor in a by-election on November 4, 1982. Counting the leadership contest, this was his fifth election in just over four years.
The opposition Liberals were led by the inexperienced David Peterson. Many senior NDP strategists believed their party could surpass the Liberals for second place, and Rae and Peterson became frequent rivals for media attention and public support between 1982 and 1985.Rae, Protest to Power, p. 88. The NDP took two seats from the Liberals in late 1984 by-elections, and polling by Decima Research from this period put them slightly ahead of the Liberals, although still well behind the PCs.
1985 election and the Liberal–NDP accord
The NDP did not make the anticipated gains in the 1985 provincial election held on May 2, 1985. They won 25 seats out of 125, only a modest improvement from their 1981 showing. The Progressive Conservatives lost support after Davis retired and right-wing candidate Frank Miller was chosen as their new leader. However, it was the Liberals rather than the NDP who were able to reposition themselves in the political centre and reap the benefits of this change.