Thursday's Dinner Speaker: Dr. Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Axworthy is director and CEO of the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues at the University of British Columbia and was recently appointed President of the University of Winnipeg, effective July 2004. He also holds positions on several boards and companies. Dr. Axworthy joined the law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain as a consultant on trade and international affairs. He is a board member of the MacArthur Foundation, Lester B. Pearson College, University of the Arctic, Impacs (Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society), and the Conflict Analysis and Management Advisory Board at Royal Roads University.

He is also serving as chairman of the Human Security Centre for the United Nations University for Peace (UPEACE), member of the Eminent Persons Group on Small Arms, co-chair of the State of the World Forum, Commission on Globalization, and chairman of the Manitoba Task Force on Climate Change. In July 2001, Dr. Axworthy became a UNICEF Canada special representative. Dr. Axworthy was Duke University's Karl von der Heyden Distinguished Visiting International Fellow for 2001.

Since leaving public life in the fall of 2000, Dr. Axworthy has been the recipient of several prestigious awards and honours. This year, the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation presented him with the Senator Patrick J. Leahy Award in recognition of his leadership in the global effort to outlaw landmines and the use of children as soldiers and to bring war criminals to justice. In February of this year, Princeton University awarded him the Madison Medal for his record of outstanding public service. He received the CARE International Humanitarian Award, the Thakore award honouring the peace work of Mahatma Gandhi and was invested into the Order of Manitoba.

Dr. Axworthy was also awarded an honourary doctorate from Dalhousie University to accompany previous honourary degrees from Niagara University and the University of Winnipeg. He graduated in 1961 with a BA from United College (now the University of Winnipeg), obtained his MA in Political Science from Princeton University in 1963, subsequently earning a PhD from Princeton in 1972.

Dr. Axworthy's political career spanned 27 years, during six of which he served in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly and twenty-one in the Federal Parliament. First elected federally in 1979 as Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Winnipeg-Fort Garry, Dr. Axworthy was re-elected in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1993 and 1997. He held several Cabinet positions, notably Minister of Employment and Immigration, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Minister of Transport, of Human Resources Development, of Western Economic Diversification and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In his Foreign Affairs portfolio, he became internationally known for his advancement of the human security concept, in particular, the Ottawa Treaty—a landmark global treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. For his leadership on landmines, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. For his efforts in establishing the International Criminal Court and the Protocol on child soldiers, he received the North-South Institute's Peace Award. In 2003, Dr. Axworthy was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of Canada's highest honours for lifetime achievement.

Dr. Axworthy is also the author of Navigating a New World: Canada's Global Future, a book that explores how we can become active citizens in the 21st century, and discusses why Canada has the skills to lead the world into a better 21st century, making the world a safer, more sustainable and humane place to live.

He continues to be involved in international matters, leading the Canadian delegation to The Hague Conference on Climate Change and as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS).