Thomas Sidney Axworthy, OC (born May 23, 1947) is a Canadian civil servant, political strategist, writer and professor.
This was Axworthy's first opportunity to work on Canada's economic, social and industrial policies in depth, and this influenced his future thinking about such issues.
His close association with Walter Gordon introduced him to Keith Davey, Jim Coutts, Tom Kent and Pierre Trudeau, all of whom became important influences in his life.
In 1974, at the invitation of Keith Davey, Axworthy returned to Ottawa to work on urban issues in that year's election campaign, where he drafted the Liberal Party's housing platform.
In 1976 he helped organize the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, held in Vancouver, British Columbia which initiated his interest in water and sanitation issues, a priority in his later work with the Gordon Foundation.
In 1979, with the defeat of the Liberals by Joe Clark, Axworthy worked in the Leader of the Opposition's Office as acting director and senior policy advisor.
With the defeat of Clark's minority government, Axworthy returned to the Prime Minister's Office as senior policy advisor, and was appointed Principal Secretary to Pierre Trudeau in 1981, a position which he held until 1984.
In 1984, Axworthy was invited to be a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, before being appointed as the visiting Mackenzie King Chair of Canadian Studies at Harvard University in 1985.
While at Harvard, Axworthy co-drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities with world-renowned theologian Hans Küng, a major project of the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government.
He helped found the North America Institute of Santa Fe under the direction of Professor John Wirth which examined Mexican, Canadian and American public policies.
The CRB Foundation, during this time, created the well-known "Heritage Minute" series of commercials, which explored various aspects of Canadian History, and which were released on television and in movie theatres.
[4] Axworthy collaborated with Nathon Gunn to create History Game Canada,[5] which won a MacArthur Foundation award for Innovation in Participatory Learning.
[6] In recognition of his outstanding achievement and service in the field of history and heritage, Axworthy was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002.
[11] In 2009, Axworthy was asked to chair the Advisory Task Force on Democracy Promotion for the Minister of Democratic Reform, the Hon.
The foundation also created the Mackenzie Data Stream,[12] an online system that provides real time access to communities and decision makers on water quality indicators.
The Council is composed of more than thirty former heads of state who jointly develop proposals for action and submit them directly to national and international decision-makers.