Tom hails from his beloved Winnipeg. Attracted to politics early in his life, he organized a campaign rally in his hometown that featured al leader Lester B. Pearson. The latter’s campaign manager, Walter Gordon, impressed at how well organized the rally was, asked to meet the teenaged.

Gordon was so impressed with his youthful discovery that he later phoned Tom’s parents requested their permission for their son to come to Ottawa as a political assistant. With permission granted, Tom began to work on Parliament Hill. When I served under him at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen’s, Tom told me once that Walter Gordon gave him a piece of advice that guided him through his next decades of involvement in politics.

Gordon invited his charge into the former’s office at the end of a long political day at the House of Commons. His feet on the desk, Gordon said the following: “Young man, if you are willing to let someone else take all the credit, you can really get a lot done in Ottawa.”

After serving as a speechwriter and advisor to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the PMO, Tom became Principal Secretary to the PM in 1981. Over the next three years he played key roles in helping Trudeau re-patriate the Constitution, Trudeau’s Peace Initiative and so much more.

I will always consider myself lucky that Tom took me under his wing at Queen’s when he headed the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) and named me a Fellow of the CSD, working on political history. Thanks to him (and his assistant Julie Burch), I had my first book published and so much more.

While a life-long Liberal, Tom is respected by all sides and has friends in all parties. To steal a phrase from Mackenzie King, he is a “jewel” in our party system and academia today.

Happy birthday Tom. And, thank you.