James Karl Bartleman OC OOnt (24 December 1939 – 14 August 2023) was a Canadian diplomat and author who served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 2002 to 2007.

In 1963, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in History from the University of Western Ontario, where he was initiated as a member of Phi Delta Theta.

Following an assignment in Bogota, Colombia, Bartleman was given the task in 1972 of opening Canada's first diplomatic mission in the newly independent People's Republic of Bangladesh.

In 1994, Bartleman returned to Ottawa, where he served in the Privy Council Office as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Chretien.

[5][6] Bob Rae, who had been tasked with advising deputy PM Anne McLellan, later admitted that he never bothered to interview Bartleman, the former head of intelligence for Foreign Affairs Canada.

He has collected over 1.2 million books, donated from all corners of the province from both institutions and individuals, to stock school libraries in First Nations communities, particularly in Northern Ontario.

Following the end of his viceregal term, Bartleman has also published a trilogy of social justice novels, As Long as the Rivers Flow (2011), The Redemption of Oscar Wolf (2013) and Exceptional Circumstances (2015).