Son
I was born September 9, 1968 in Toronto -- the only child of Andrea Alexander, a high school Phys Ed teacher (later a full-time volunteer in the arts and lay adjudicator at the Law Society of Upper Canada) from Huntsville, Ontario, and Bruce Alexander, a lawyer and public servant born in Montreal but raised in Toronto and Oakville. They lived in Toronto all my life, giving me strong values, curiosity about the world, a sense of civic duty and a deep love of city, province and country.
Childhood
Growing up in Toronto was a happy time for me; our family travelled often to Simcoe County, Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts in Ontario to see grandparents and other relatives. From an early age I was exposed to Canada from PEI to BC. I saw the 1972 Summit Series, the first Apollo missions on TV, the building of the CN Tower and the launch of the Blue Jays franchise. In the 1970s, high inflation, unemployment and oil price shocks slowed growth in Canada and elsewhere; the Cold War lingered.
Learning
From junior kindergarten to grade 13, I attended Oriole Park Public School and the University of Toronto Schools. I owe a huge debt to Toronto District School Board teachers like Mrs. Kudo at Oriole Park. Life outside class included debating, student council, sports, music, theatre and a German exchange programme. We were part of a student model United Nations, which opened my eyes to the wider world.
Working
My first summer job (with my grandfather) started at 13. I’ve been a house painter, courier, restoration project officer and tree-planter in Ontario and British Columbia. These jobs allowed me to earn a BA in history and political science from McGill University and an MA in philosophy and economics from Balliol College at Oxford University. Between these degrees I studied in French for the first half of 1989 at Laval University in Quebec City.
Family
Hedvig and I were married in Denmark on June 21, 2008 – surrounded by family and friends from Canada, Denmark, Afghanistan and many other countries. Our first daughter Selma was born in April 2009 in Denmark. We moved to Canada soon after my job ended in Afghanistan. In 2010 I wrote a book about my six years in Kabul entitled, The Long Way Back: Afghanistan’s Quest for Peace. Elisabeth was born in October 2011 and Julius in July 2018 – both in Toronto.
Hedvig
Hedvig Christine Alexander grew up in Sønderborg, Denmark, and in Greenland before obtaining a BA from Copenhagen Business School and an MA from Yale University. She served at the Danish Embassy in Moscow, then as a UN military observer in Georgia. As an officer in the Danish Army Reserve, she came to Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2002. She later worked for UNDP and was managing director of Peace Dividend Trust and Turquoise Mountain. Hedvig is now the co-founder of Powered by People, a social enterprise based in Toronto.
Diplomacy
In August 1991 I joined Canada’s Department of External Affairs as a foreign service officer. Over a total of six years at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, I saw Russia experiment with democracy and a market economy, as well as the reality of corruption, financial crisis and two bloody wars in Chechnya. I first met Vladimir Putin in 1995, when he was St Petersburg’s deputy mayor. I was his liaison officer at the last G8 summit he attended in Canada – and have been appalled by his aggressive authoritarianism and illegal invasion and occupation of Ukraine.
Afghanistan
In August 2003 I arrived in Kabul as the first resident Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan. It was a time of hope. Millions of refugees were coming home; schools were opening; the first fully democratic elections took place in 2004-05. Canada’s large-scale commitment was a catalyst for cooperation and progress – and deeply appreciated. But life for many Afghans remained desperate. As Canada’s armed forces deployed to Kandahar, the Taliban and their allies were regrouping just across the border in Pakistan, in cities like Quetta.
United Nations
From 2005 to 2009 I was Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Afghanistan responsible for political affairs, relations with the Afghan government, the international community and military. Our focus was on disarmament and elections, as well as improving governance, rule of law and police. Here I am with King Zaher Shah, whose reign from 1933 to 1973 was mostly peaceful; he returned to Kabul in 2004 as ‘Father of the Nation’. My four years with UNAMA ended in May 2009 – just as the US surge authorized by President Obama was beginning. This photo was taken during Richard Holbrooke’s first visit to Afghanistan: we are standing on demobilized Soviet tanks in cantonment in Herat.
Surge
The Taliban resurgence after 2005 threatened Afghanistan’s achievements. In response, a larger Afghan and NATO force deployed. I spoke out early and often about the need to end support for the Taliban from outside Afghanistan. My four years with UNAMA ended in May 2009 – just as the US surge authorized by President Obama was beginning. This photo was taken during Richard Holbrooke’s first visit to Afghanistan: we are standing on demobilized Soviet tanks in cantonment in Herat.
Parliament
In September 2009 I left the foreign service to enter public life at home. I was offered opportunities by more than one party, and remain thankful for all of them. I chose to stand as the Conservative candidate for Ajax-Pickering because I saw in the federal Conservative team a real determination to make headway where Canada needed it most. On May 2, 2011 it was my huge privilege to be elected a Member of Parliament in Stephen Harper’s majority government which included nine MPs in Toronto. With the Canadian Armed Forces engaged in combat over Libya and a major training mission in Afghanistan, I was proud to serve for two years as parliamentary secretary to Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay.
Toronto & Kenya
Since 2015, I have been an executive, strategic advisor and corporate director in Toronto. I’ve also been a distinguished fellow of the Canadian International Council (CIC) based in Toronto, the Macdonald Laurier Institute in Ottawa, the Montreal Institute for Global Security and the Enterprise Think Tank in Copenhagen. For the first seven months of 2022, our family lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya where many of Hedvig’s colleagues in Powered by People are based.
Citizenship
From July 3, 2013 until November 4, 2015 I was Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. We launched Express Entry, a faster, merit-based online system for economic immigration that anchors Canada’s immigration system to this day. We reformed the caregiver, investor and temporary foreign worker programmes; completed the resettlement of 23,000 Iraqi refugees; and undertook in January 2015 to re-settle 10,000 Syrian refugees – the first such commitment by any country. We renewed Canada’s Citizenship Act for the first time in decades.
Immigration
Over the period 2006-2015, Canada sustained the highest levels of immigration in our history, while unemployment rates dropped. Public support for immigration was strong. The number of international students, tourists and other visitors rose. I co-chaired a High Level Policy Forum on Migration at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris in December 2014 organized around themes central to the ‘Canadian model’ for immigration, refugee and citizen success.
Passions
My favourite recreation is the Canadian wilderness: there is nothing that refreshes mind and body quite like a canoe trip. I also enjoy running, hockey, skiing, hiking, tennis, basketball, Canadian football, yoga and many other sports. Books are also a major passion: my interests range from Chinese history to the Middle East, Afghanistan and South Asia; from the Yukon to Cape Breton Island. In the end, losing last year’s election has had a massive silver lining: the chance to spend more time with family and friends.
Service
Public service is about taking action to benefit everyone. In a world of uncertainty, we need our municipal institutions and services to be at their best; to work for all residents, including the most vulnerable; and to pass on a bright future and a better life to future generations. There is still no city, province or country with more potential to deliver and do good in the world than Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Action
Cities don't succeed by accident — and in a world this volatile and competitive, Toronto's success is not assured. In the next phase of my public service, I want to put everything I've learned to work for the city I call home.
