From another General:

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” – Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States, and former General of the Army”

A native of Fort Frances, Howie used his smarts (and hockey skills) to obtain an Ivy League education at Dartmouth College, and a graduate degree from the University of Toronto. He returned to Northern Ontario to teach and become active in local politics. Howie was elected as MPP for the constituency of Kenora—Rainy River in 1987 and subsequently re-elected five times.

As Attorney General, Howie is well known among Ontario class action lawyers for his role in drafting, sponsoring and passing the Ontario Class Proceedings Act, 1992.

However, it was his time as Minister of Natural Resources which was his true calling. He oversaw the modernization of Ontario’s forest management legislation through the development and passage of the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, and the creation of the Forest Renewal Trust Fund, and the Forest Futures Trust Fund. The Act and the Trust Funds continue to be the basis for sustainable forest policy and sustainable forest management to this day. As MPP, and as Minister, he worked very closely with the 55 First Nation communities in the constituency of Kenora—Rainy River, stretching along the Ontario-Manitoba border from the USA to the shores of Hudson Bay, and he continues to have a close working relationship with all those First Nations.

Howie also took a particular interest in electricity issues and authored Public Power: The Fight for Publicly Owned Electricity, a history of Ontario Hydro. His concerns were prophetic – The Toronto Sun in a 2018 Editorial stated:

“Former Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton’s preoccupation with hydro issues when he ran for the premier’s job in 2003 was called an “obsession” by the grey, old Globe & Mail. We may have poked fun at him as well. But it turns out Hampton was an early prophet of coming electromagnetic calamity, whose political concerns about hydro privatization and rising rates were prophetic. Enough so that Hampton can now say “I told you so” to his critics.”

His biography and contact information can be found here.