Axworthy, Thomas Sidney

Person

Axworthy, Thomas Sidney

1947-

Thomas Sidney Axworthy, OC, was born 23 May 1947, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has been a Canadian civil servant, political strategist, writer, and professor. He is best known for having served as Principal Secretary and Chief Speechwriter to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Axworthy is currently the President and CEO of the Walter and Duncan Gordan Foundation, is a former Chair of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), and Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the younger brother of Lloyd Axworthy. Axworthy received his BA degree (Hons) from the University of Winnipeg, an MA degree (1972), as well as a PhD degree (1979) from Queen’s University. Joining the Liberal Party in the early 1960s, Axworthy worked as a research assistant for the Task Force on the Structure of the Canadian Economy, led by Walter Gordon. This was the first opportunity for Axworthy to work with Canada’s economic, social, and industrial policies in depth, and influenced future thinking about such issues. In 1974, Axworthy began his first political job, joining the Office of the Minister of National Revenue as a Special Assistant on various policy issues. A year later, he was hired with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under Principal Secretary Jim Coutts as a political strategist and policy advisor to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1979, with the defeat of the Liberals by Joe Clark, Axworthy worked in the Leader of the Opposition’s Office as Acting Director and Senior Policy Advisor. With the defeat of Clark’s minority government, Axworthy returned to the Prime Minister’s Office as Senior Policy Advisor, and was appointed Principal Secretary in 1981, a position which he held until 1984. During this time, he was a key strategist in the Repatriation of the Constitution and the National Energy Program. In 1984, Axworthy was invited to be a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, before being appointed as the visiting Mackenzie King Chair of Canadian Studies at Harvard University in 1985. Axworthy rejoined the Kennedy School of Government the following year, working on the Canadian Program at the Centre for International Affairs. He was appointed as an adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School in 1991, and continued to teach at Harvard until returning to Canada in 2003 as an adjunct lecturer at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. Until 2009, Axworthy was the Chair and Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy. Upon assuming his current position as the President and CEO of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, Axworthy stayed on as Chairman of the Board of the Centre. While at Harvard, Axworthy co-drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities with world-renowned theologian Hans Küng, a major project of the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government. During his time at Harvard, Axworthy also served as Vice-President and then Executive Director for the Charles R. Bronfman Foundation. The Foundation, during this time, created the well-known “Heritage Minute” series of commercials, which explored various aspects of Canadian History, which were released on television and movie theatres. In 1999, Axworthy helped create and raise funds for the Historica Foundation, becoming its Executive Director. The Foundation aimed to improve the teaching and learning of Canadian history. In recognition of his outstanding achievement and service in the field of history and heritage, Axworthy was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, Axworthy resigned as Executive Director of the Historica Foundation. In the wake of the defeat of Paul Martin's minority Liberal Government in January, 2006, Axworthy was appointed co-chair of the Liberal Party Renewal Commission, which was charged with re-thinking every aspect of the Liberal Party's policies and structure. The Commission created 32 taskforces that were charged with examining each aspect of the party. The Commission reported just prior to the Liberal Leadership Convention of December 2–3, 2006, urging a return to its liberal philosophical roots, to refocus on developing and electrifying its membership, and to rethink many of the fundamental policies that have informed Liberal policy. Specific recommendations that emerged from the Commission included a Thinker's Conference, in order to developing a new platform for the party, a Council of Riding Presidents, which would represent the membership of the party in years between conventions, as well as a Day of Deliberation, in which Liberal Party Members across the country would be asked to debate and vote on policies in each of their ridings. In 2009, Axworthy was asked to Chair the Advisory Task Force on Democracy Promotion for the Minister of Democratic Reform, he Hon. Steven Fletcher. The unanimous report of the Task Force is currently being considered by the Government. Axworthy appears regularly on television and radio as a political analyst. He also frequently contributes to various Academic Journals, magazines and newspapers, especially the Toronto Star. He has also edited a number of books, most notably Towards a Just Society: The Trudeau Years, which he co-edited with Pierre Trudeau in 1990.

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Biographical sketch adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Axworthy