While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Bob Rae.
I wrote a book thirty years ago about the three questions posed by the great Rabbi Hillel more than two thousand years ago: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” I have returned to those questions on countless occasions since, and...
Every September, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week converges on New York City. The week was once largely confined to the General Assembly. While the general debate remains its centrepiece, high-level week now also involves tens of thousands of delegates, observers, lobbyists, advocates, critics, enthusiasts, and hangers-on meeting in countless venues. There is “pre-HLW”, “post-HLW”, main meetings, side...
It takes a lot to unite Canadians. But in the days and weeks that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we came together to support and defend our closest friend and ally. Sadly, 25 years later, Canadians are united as never before against that same friend. We have gone from best friends to belligerents. It is hard to believe...
On July 17th, Canada’s Department of National Defence made an announcement of great consequence so stealthily that journalists didn’t report it until this week. The DND press release, issued late on a Friday, was headlined Canadian Armed Forces rebalances operations to strengthen global footprint: “The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is rebalancing its global operational commitments to better align resources with...
Losing the United States as a critical leader and ally in the fight for democracy has presented Canadians with a new set of challenges. The first one is emotional. Ever since the election of Franklin Roosevelt as President of the United States in 1932, the expansion of American culture through radio, film, and television, the postwar decline of the British...
The latest agreement between our government and the Trump administration to allow the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge that links Windsor and Detroit is just the latest in a long saga. After much delay and dithering, the bridge was scheduled to be open for business on June 15, 2026, after a planned ribbon cutting on June 12. The plan...
We are living through a moment when our democracy, unity, and international engagement are once again being tested. In the last week alone, I’ve spoken at the Together/Ensemble conference in Calgary on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, followed by the Democratic Engagement Exchange dialogue on the state of Canada’s democratic health. The bad news is that our politics seems precarious...
I recently taught an intensive course to Queen’s University graduate students on the origins of the current crisis in the relationship between Canada and the United States, after teaching a similar course at the Munk School in Toronto. It’s been a great experience, and fun to be back in the classroom. My stay in Kingston included an enjoyable visit with...
The outpouring of emotion and praise for Stephen Lewis on news of his death came from every quarter, and deservedly so. At each stage of his life, Stephen made an impact and touched people with his clear moral direction and unequalled rhetorical power. As Ed Murrow once said of Winston Churchill, Stephen Lewis mobilized the English language and sent it...
There are moments that reveal a nation’s character more clearly than any policy platform or political speech. One such moment came in the summer of 1972, when Idi Amin decreed the expulsion of Uganda’s entire Asian population, and the fate of thousands of terrified families hung in the balance. Discussions between Aga Khan IV and Pierre Elliott Trudeau – two...
Two recent tweets by Donald Trump on Truth Social reflect a dangerous unravelling of his Middle East war strategy, to the extent that there was one. The first is about the refusal of many countries to send military personnel or equipment as part of operation “Epic Fury”: “The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that...
It has been less than two weeks since the joint US/Israeli bombing campaign on Iran began. It is past time to bring it to a quick conclusion. Conflicting messages abound: “unconditional surrender” and “the war is very complete” from Donald Trump, and “not a single drop of oil will leave the region” from Iran. There is now clear evidence, from...
I begin writing today with a quotation from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. In a press conference Monday morning, Hegseth celebrated Israel and its strikes alongside the U.S., while he condemned “so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force.” In explaining the Trump doctrine of military...
In a performance that clocked in at just under two hours on Tuesday night, Donald Trump turned the State of the Union address into an awards show — “You get a medal!”, “You get a medal!”…he even bemoaned not being able to award himself the Medal of Honor. Those who only read the transcript may miss the point that this...
As we mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a few points strike me as most important. The first is that this war has been — its geopolitical, political, and military characteristics aside— a battle of truth vs. lies. President Vladimir Putin has never accepted Ukraine’s separate identity, borders, national identity, language, culture, or sovereignty. Putin articulates...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January address to the World Economic Forum called for Canada to join with other middle powers in following a path that is both principled and pragmatic. He argued that we are witnessing a rupture in the rules-based international order, and must rethink how we engage with the world. Our fundamental assumptions about Canada’s place in the...
The speech heard round the world has had much impact. Mark Carney’s message to Canadians and everyone else has been widely quoted, lauded, analyzed, criticized and described as the most important speech on Canadian foreign policy since Louis St Laurent’s Grey Lecture at the University of Toronto in 1947. In discussing the speech this week with Ben Rowswell, former Canadian...
I am writing these words on Robbie Burns’s birthday, in a snowbound New York City. My reason for travelling here was to join in discussions taking place on the 80th anniversary of the first meeting in London of the Economic and Social Council ECOSOC, the United Nations charter body created to focus attention on the economic and social challenges of...
Prime Minister Mark Carney chose the Davos World Economic Forum as the moment to deliver a speech that will now define the response of the world to the erratic excesses of the “hegemons” — the big powers who guided the establishment of the United Nations in 1945 and all the other key elements of the “rules-based order” we have been...
Canadian Declaration of Resistance in Defence of Sovereignty, Democracy, and Human Rights 1. We commit to defending the territorial integrity and democracy of our country, Canada, and to face any and all economic, physical or other attack from countries or forces pursuing aggressive aims, or threats to pursue such attack, with determination and devotion to our country. This commitment includes...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s travels this week have taken him to the west coast, where he met with Indigenous leaders, and then to China. From Beijing, he heads to Doha, the capital of Qatar, and then to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Canada’s journey of justice, peace and reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples who have lived on these lands...
Dedicated to those who are continuing the fight against tyranny around the world, and those who have died in the struggle. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal is famous for his sharp aphorisms. One of my favourites is this: “Justice without force is powerless. But force without justice is tyranny.” I quoted these words in a Policy piece in 2022 after...
The decision by the Trump administration to launch an arrest operation in Caracas, Venezuela, capturing Nicolás Maduro and his spouse Cilia Flores, has profound consequences for all of us. Trump’s triumphal press conference and initial media coverage from US media focused on the level of organization, discipline, technology and expertise required to extract the Maduros in the middle of the...
With both Chantal and Bruce away this week, a special program for our final Good Talk of 2025. Bob Rae, fresh from his five years at the United Nations as Canada's Ambassador, and with his wealth of political experience, joins us to talk Canada and politics. It's a wide ranging discussion, so strap in for an engaging Good Talk.
Just a few short weeks ago, I was sitting in the United Nations listening to statements from the Trump administration emphasizing that the United States would never agree to anything that limited state sovereignty. This assertion — echoing the recent use of sovereignty as a fig leaf by autocratic states to justify a multitude of sins against international law and...
Twenty years ago, I released “Ontario: A Leader in Learning,” a report that presented a simple truth: a prosperous province and country invest in knowledge, skills, and innovation. We recognized then — as we must today — that long-term economic success depends on the strength of our colleges and universities. The current mix of policies — tuition freezes, an uncertain...
Analysts are always searching for “turning points”, “tipping points”, and “inflection points”. For me, February 2025 was such a moment. It was the month when the world we thought we understood was turned on its head. As the third anniversary of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine approached, Ukraine was determined to have another General Assembly debate and a resolution...
A quotation I have turned to more than once is Blaise Pascal’s famous dictum that “Justice without enforcement is powerless, but power without justice is tyranny”. Many critics argue that international law is not really law because it is powerless. The reality is that any kind of law is powerless if enforcement never happens. The more complicated truth is that...
One of Brian Mulroney’s favourite quotations was Teddy Roosevelt’s famous praise for life “in the arena”: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is...
