The 'Rae Review:' A Critique

The subject of this article is the report, "Ontario: A Leader in Learning" (Rae, 2005), presented to the government of Ontario by its principal author and key public face of the document, Bob Rae. The presentation is divided into four main parts: (1) the authors attempt to summarize the political philosophy of Bob Rae, the former Member of Parliament and federal New Democratic Party foreign affairs critic, former NDP Premier of Ontario, corporate lawyer, mediator, specially chosen investigator of the postsecondary educational system in Ontario and, most recently, advisor on whether or not it would be a good idea to conduct a competent investigation into Canada's most devastating terrorist attack twenty years after the event; (2) the authors discuss the process whereby Rae and his associates conducted the review of postsecondary education as a matter of political procedure and symbolic practice; (3) the authors assess the resulting report and reactions to it as matters of political discourse; and (4) the authors speak about the 2005 Ontario provincial budget as it reflects the influence of the Rae review and sets the stage for educational reform in Ontario. Finally, the authors add a few obligatory concluding remarks.