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Who is this bespectacled politician?

Broadcast Date: March 7, 1979

• An accomplished pianist, he once performed a song of his own on MuchMusic and spoke at CBC's 2008 tribute to musician Oscar Peterson.

• Another hobby is skinny-dipping, which he famously did before the cameras on CBC-TV's Rick Mercer Report in 2006.

Who is this bespectacled politician?

• The rookie MP is Bob Rae. Born in Ottawa to a diplomat father, he was involved in student politics at the University of Toronto in the late 1960s and went on to graduate studies in politics at Oxford. Upon retuning to Canada he became a member of the NDP, although he came from a family of Liberals.

• Rae left federal politics in 1982 to become leader of the Ontario NDP. In 1985 he formed a coalition government with Ontario Liberal leader David Peterson, but it only lasted two years.

• In 1990 Rae led the NDP to its first (and, as of 2011, only) victory as the ruling party in Ontario. Beset by a recession in the early 1990s, Rae introduced a cost-saving measure of mandatory unpaid days off for government workers that would forever remain known, derisively, as "Rae Days." (Manitoba also imposed unpaid days off; they were dubbed "Filmon Fridays," named for the Progressive Conservative premier.) The NDP were ousted from office in 1995, and Rae left politics.

• When the federal Liberal leadership race opened up in 2006 after the resignation of Paul Martin, Rae surprised some by becoming a Liberal and seeking the job. He was considered a front-runner, alongside Michael Ignatieff, but both were ultimately defeated when Stéphane Dion came from behind to claim the leadership.

Who is this bespectacled politician?

Medium: Television

Program: CBLT News

Broadcast Date: March 7, 1979

Guest(s): Bob Rae

Reporter: Joe Coté

Duration: 1:01

Last updated:
June 28, 2011