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From Life Inside the Prime Minister's Office to the World of Government Relations

Date

Thursday January 15, 2026
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location

Robert Sutherland Hall Room 202

Join us for a lively discussion with Jonathan Kalles, former adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He’ll take us inside the day-to-day reality of the PMO and reveal how those lessons now guide his career in government relations and lobbying.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to our guest during the session.

ABOUT: Jonathan (Jono) is a former Quebec adviser to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after previously serving as a senior Quebec adviser to a number of federal ministers. He has been active in political campaigns in Quebec for over 30 years and was senior member of the Quebec war room for the 2019 Liberal Party of Canada campaign team.  As a vice-president at McMillan Vantage, Jono leads client files across multiple sectors, sharing his expertise gleaned over two decades both in government and working in federal, provincial and municipal government relations and public affairs.

Jono is a regular panelist on CBC’s Power & Politics and is also a contributor on CTV News and CJAD Radio in Montreal, as well as Radio-Canada in French. Jono holds a BA in Political Science and History and graduated with Common and Civil Law degrees from McGill University. He is also a member of the Quebec Bar and practiced corporate and commercial law in Montréal.

 

The Rise and Fall of "Visible Minority" in Canada

Date

Thursday January 8, 2026
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location

Robert Sutherland Hall Room 202

Once heralded – and criticized – as a uniquely Canadian way of defining racial categories, the visible minority concept is being retired from government terminology. This presentation details the rise and fall of “visible minority,” highlighting the unresolved tension between racial classification systems that simultaneously acknowledge racial difference while obscuring structural racial inequality.  

Debra Thompson is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies at McGill University. She is the author of The Schematic State: Race, Transnationalism, and the Politics of the Census (2016) and The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging (2022) and is a contributing columnist for the Globe and Mail.

Carney’s quandary — political will blocked by bureaucratic won’t

Eugene Lang, Interim Director of the School of Policy Studies, joined Ian Brodie, former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and professor of political studies at the University of Calgary, on John Ivison's National Post podcast to comment on the Carney government and its progress on its agenda at the end of 2025. 

Listen to "Ivison: Carney's quandary--political will blocked by bureaucratic won't" here. 

Rae, Bob

Bob Rae

Bob Rae

Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy

PC, CC, O.Ont, KC

School of Policy Studies

Hon Bob Rae, PC, CC, O.Ont, KC

Bob Rae has been deeply engaged in a full range of public policy issues at the international, national, and provincial levels of government throughout a career that stretches for more than half a century. 

Most recently he served as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York from 2020-2025, including a term as President of the Economic and Social Council, one of only three Canadians elected in their personal capacity to preside over UN Charter bodies since 1945. 

Mr. Rae served as Premier of Ontario from 1990-1995, and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011-2013. He was elected to federal and provincial parliaments 11 times between 1978 and 2013. He has been honoured by the alumni of both bodies for his distinguished service. 

Mr. Rae was educated in Ottawa, Washington DC, and at the International School of Geneva. and received his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto, an M.Phil in Politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College in Oxford University, and graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1977.

He led the restructuring of the Canadian Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and chaired the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He also wrote “Lessons to be Learned” on the Air India bombing, and “Ontario a Leader in Learning” - a study of the Ontario higher education system. He was named to the Security and Intelligence Review Committee by then Prime Minister Chrétien. 

Mr. Rae’s return to Parliament for the constituency of Toronto Centre in 2008 led to his appointment as Foreign Affairs spokesman for his party, and to his election as interim Leader in 2011. In 1996-99 and between 2013 and 2020 he taught law, politics, public policy at the University of Toronto. He was the Wilson Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University in the University of Toronto from 2016 to 2020. He is the author of nine books and reports on politics and public policy. 

Bob Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, and has numerous awards and honorary degrees from around the world. He is married to Arlene Perly Rae, a writer and public advocate on issues affecting women and children. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.

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