Canada PoliticsFormer Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is off to Harvard
You could call it a politician relocation program of sorts.
The Toronto Star is reporting that former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is retreating to academia following his retirement — as a MPP — from Queen's Park earlier this month.
McGuinty, who governed Ontario from 2003 until last February, will decamp to Cambridge, Mass., for the fall semester at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
The Weatherhead Center hosts more than a dozen senior fellows each year. They include former politicians, officials from non-governmental organizations, journalists, and top U.S. military officers.
Premier Dad — or maybe now Professor Dad — is following in the footsteps of former federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
Ignatieff is the Carr Professor and Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. (apparently, he was 'just visiting')
Other Canadian politicos who have found soft landings at universities have included Kim Campbell (Harvard), Joe Clark (McGill) and Ed Broadbent (Oxford).
[ Related: 'I’m not looking for votes': Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty skewers partisan political games ]
It's probably a good opportunity for McGuinty to get 'out of dodge' in the near-term.
The former premier has been under fire since last month when Ontario's Privacy and Information Commissioner Dr. Ann Cavoukian issued a report claiming that, when McGunity was premier, his office broke the law by deleting e-mails related to controversial cancellations of two gas plants during the 2011 election.
The gas plant boondoggle — along with other scandals — has affected his popularity: A new Forum Research poll, out this week, claims that 32 per cent of Ontarians believe McGuinty is "one of Ontario’s worst premiers."
(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)
Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!
