Seven members of the Queen’s community – including the Queen’s Chancellor, the federal defence minister, the governor of the Bank of Canada, and the Governor General – are among 50 Canadians Maclean’s has named to its annual Power List for leading transformative change in a time of global uncertainty.
The Power List focuses on the individuals, groups, and issues shaping our world. This year, Maclean’s said it focused on those helping to navigate the global pandemic, as well as those who will lead change in the future.
“Our ability to navigate these problems will rest heavily on our brightest, bravest, and most accomplished,” the magazine noted. “Remember their names, and lend them your ears.”
Members of the Queen’s community listed:
Murray Sinclair, LLD’19
Maclean’s ranking: #30
In 2021, The Honourable Murray Sinclair became Queen’s 15th Chancellor, saying he was looking forward to “contributing to the new vision at Queen’s University.” This followed a career of contributing to a new vision for the nation.
Chancellor Sinclair, who shared the ranking with his son, Niigaan Sinclair, established himself as a leading advocate for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, serving as the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the second in Canada. In recognition of his decades of service, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2016 and served as a Senator until January 2021. He is perhaps best known for leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, overseeing its groundbreaking final report in 2015. In December 2021, Chancellor Sinclair was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honours. He has received honorary doctorates from more than a dozen universities, including Queen’s in 2019.
“Though he keeps intending to retire, his pre-eminent expertise is highly sought-after,” Maclean’s wrote, noting that Chancellor Sinclair is now overseeing high-profile negotiations over federal compensation to Indigenous children.
Tiff Macklem, Artsci’83
Maclean’s ranking: #3
Tiff Macklem has been at the helm of the Bank of Canada since 2020. He took on the role as governor just months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and has since been helping Canada grapple with a recession and rising interest rates. Maclean’s says Canadians owe him a debt of gratitude.
“Since his appointment in May 2020, he’s steered the economy through a unique recession with a bond-buying spree and record-low interest rates,” the magazine writes.
This isn’t Macklem’s first experience helping the economy during a global crisis. He was Canada’s associate deputy minister of finance in 2008–09, when economic leaders around the world feared the global financial system was in danger of collapsing. Prior to that, he served in increasingly senior positions at the Bank of Canada and in the federal government. He has served as the dean of the Rotman School of Business and on various business and finance committees.
Macklem graduated from Queen's University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in economics and completed a master’s degree and a PhD in economics from Western University.
Macklem married Rosemary Cuthbertson, Com’83, three years after graduating. They have been together for more than three decades now and have three children. Two of their children — Holly Macklem, Sc’17, and Richard Macklem, Artsci’13 — graduated from Queen’s, continuing the family’s long history with the university. Macklem’s father (Dick Macklem, Com’52) and uncle (Peter Macklem, BA’53) are among his many relatives who also called themselves Gaels.
Read more about Tiff Macklem in the spring 2021 issue of the Queen’s Alumni Review.
Anita Anand, Artsci’89
Maclean’s ranking: #5
Last year, Anita Anand became the first woman of colour to oversee the Canadian Armed Forces.
But that was just one in a long list of accomplishments for Anand, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 2019 to represent the riding of Oakville, Ont. Born and raised in rural Nova Scotia, she moved to Ontario in 1985. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Studies at Queen’s and went on to graduate from the University of Oxford, Dalhousie University, and the University of Toronto. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1994.
Anand spent 25 years in corporate and securities law and as a legal academic. She has taught at Queen’s, Yale Law School, and Western University. Once elected to parliament, Anand served as the minister of Public Service and Procurement during the pandemic. In 2019, she was then appointed as Minister of National Defence with a mandate to lead cultural change in the Canadian military.
Maclean’s hails her as “one of the stars of Canadian politics,” and says “her no-nonsense approach and capable management of thorny issues has earned her regular mentions on lists of potential successors to (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau.”
John Brodhead, Artsci’00
Maclean’s ranking: #8
John Brodhead, Artsci’00, has been making an impact in the world of politics and policy in Canada for almost 20 years. Brodhead began serving as Director of Policy to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January 2022, making Maclean’s Power Ranking as part of “Club Trudeau,” the insider team of experts who act as Prime Minister Trudeau’s closest advisers on a spectrum of issues and policies.
In his career, Brodhead has also served as an adviser to former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, was Vice-President of Policy and Partnerships for TAS, a real estate developer in Toronto, and has also held roles with Sidewalk Labs, where he worked on policy and strategy. Brodhead also served as Chief of Staff to Dr. Jane Philpott during her tenure as Canadian Minister of Indigenous Services (Dr. Philpott is now dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s), and acted as Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, as well as Executive Director of Evergreen City Works.
Brodhead graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Politics in 2000.
Scott Reid, Artsci’92
Maclean’s ranking: #26
Scott Reid, who was ranked alongside his podcast partners Jenni Byrne and David Herle, has been a force within the Canadian news and political landscape for more than two decades. Throughout his career, Reid has been an adviser to many federal and provincial leaders. His impact doesn’t end there. He has served as a leader in senior communications capacities on national, provincial, and municipal elections campaigns.
Reid graduated in 1992 from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics. As an experienced commentator, Reid can also be found on air for CTV News, Newstalk 1010AM and has provided columns and analysis for the Ottawa Citizen, Globe and Mail and Maclean’s, to name just a few. Having served as adviser and director of communications in the Prime Minister's Office of Prime Minister Paul Martin, Reid later teamed up with Maclean’s Columnist Scott Feschuk to own and operate Feschuk.Reid, a top strategy and communications firm.
As one of the voices of the Curse of Politics podcast, Maclean’s says Reid and his co-hosts wield plenty of power.
“These are two Liberals and one Tory who criticize their respective parties’ current leaders without reserve,” the magazine writes. “When an episode drops, curses must fly in the offices of Trudeau and O’Toole.”
Mary Simon, LLD’04
Maclean’s ranking: #29
Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, a Queen’s University honorary degree recipient in 1994, is Canada’s 30th Governor General of Canada.
Simon, an Inuk from Kuujjuaq in northeastern Quebec, become the first Indigenous person to serve as governor general. Simon is the past president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national Inuit organization, and previously led the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC). She has served as Canada's ambassador to Denmark (1999-2001) and was named Canada's first Arctic ambassador by former prime minister Jean Chrétien in 2002. She has previously been praised by former prime minister Paul Martin as understanding “what it takes to bring us together.”
Maclean’s writes that “Reconciliation is urgently needed. If anyone can help—even from a symbolic position — it’s Simon.”
Omar El Akkad, Comp’04
Maclean’s ranking: #43
Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Omar El Akkad, who is lauded by Maclean’s as “one of the country’s most prominent literary voices,” got his first writing job at the Queen’s Journal, working his way up to editor-in-chief.
“As soon as I walked into the building, I felt like I was part of something,” he recalls in the upcoming issue of the Queen’s Alumni Review. “I ended up spending my entire university career there.”
El Akkad went on to a successful career in journalism, first at the Edmonton Journal and later at the Globe and Mail, where he covered stories around the world. Those experiences as a journalist later shaped him as a novelist — along with his time in Professor Carolyn Smart’s creative writing class at Queen’s.
In 2021, El Akkad won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise, a story of a young Syrian boy’s survival in the global refugee crisis. This year he joins Queen’s as the 2022 Writer in Residence in the Department of English — a program started by his former professor, Carolyn Smart.
