Hon. David Collenette
David Collenette served as a Member of the Canadian House of Commons for more than 20 years and in the cabinet led by three Prime Ministers, Pierre Trudeau, John Turner and Jean Chretien for a period of eleven years. He held several portfolios: Minister of State-Multiculturalism; Minister of National Defense; Minister of Veterans Affairs; Minister of Transport and Minister of Crown Corporations. He did not seek re-election in 2004.
During the constitutional debates of the early 1980's, Mr.Collenette, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, was assigned by the government to Westminister to represent Canada's interests in discussions with the British government and members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. He was proud to have voted for the Constitution Act (1982) which incorporated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As Minister of National Defense, Mr. Collenette oversaw the reorganization, restructuring and reengineering of the department as the government confronted the severe financial deficit and was the author of the highly regarded 1994 Defence White Paper. During this period, the Canadian Forces were involved in challenging assignments in the Balkans, Rawanda and Haiti, as well as confronting the troubling issues relating to the earlier deployment to Somalia. David also worked closely with his American counterpart, William Perry, on the Partnership for Peace initiative which led to former Warsaw Pact nations joining NATO.
As Transport Minister, Mr. Collenette, was proud to have authored a major policy document, Straight Ahead, which charted a course for Canadian transportation policy over the next decade. In addition, he initiated several legislative changes including the Canada Marine Act and amendments to the Competition Act to deal with the restructuring of the Canadian airline industry. Perhaps the most challenging period of his career was overseeing Canada's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, and the subsequent issues related to transportation security.
As Regional Minister for the Greater Toronto Area, Mr. Collenette, in 2000-2003, oversaw federal infrastructure funding that resulted in the largest single expansion of cultural institutions in Canadian history at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the National Ballet School, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Roy Thompson Hall and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art.
In the private sector, Mr.Collenette has worked in the life insurance, plastics and executive recruitment fields as well as an adviser to several Canadian and US companies in the transportation and defense industries.
Mr. Collenette holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Master of Arts in political science, an Honourary Doctorate (LL.D.) from York University, Toronto as well as being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (F.C.I.L.T.) He served as Chancellor of the Royal Military College of Canada (1993-96); as a member of the International Advisory Council, Institute of International Studies, Stanford University, California (1999-2005); as Distinguished Fellow, Glendon College, York University (2004-2010); and as Distinguished Fellow, Ryerson University (2012-2013).
From 1987-1991, while in the private sector, Mr.Collenette also worked in a volunteer capacity for the National Democratic Institute, Washington, D.C. He was involved in democratic development projects and election monitoring in Haiti, Chile, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
Upon leaving elected politics in 2004 he resumed his association with NDI and served as Co-Leader of its observer mission to the Ukrainian presidential run-off election on November 21st, 2004, as Co-Leader of the parliamentary elections assessment mission for Pakistan in May 2007 and Co-Leader of the municipal elections assessment mission for Ukraine in October 2010.
He is past Chair and current Director of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (North America), former Vice-President, CILT International, the world’s premier logistics and transport organization with more than 30,000 members. Mr.Collenette is also a director of Harbourfront Corporation (Toronto) and a past member of the Toronto East General (now Michael Garron) Hospital Foundation Campaign Executive Team. In 2007 he served as Chair of the Mayor of Ottawa’s Task Force on Transportation which produced a landmark report, Moving Ottawa whose key recommendations have been adopted with the building of the new light rail system in the nation’s capital. He served as Special Advisor on High Speed Rail to the Government of Ontario, 2017-18. He is currently Vice-President and Secretary of the Harbourfront Corporation and Director Emeritus of CILTNA.
He currently serves as Chair, NATO Association of Canada.
From 2008-2021 Mr.Collenette was associated as Senior Counsel, with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Canada, part of the world’s largest public relations, public affairs and communications company, WPP, based in the UK.
Mr.Collenette is bilingual (English and French).
David Collenette may be reached at: dcollenette@glendon.yorku.ca
David.Collenette@natoassociation.ca