How important are a political leader’s rhetorical powers of persuasion — in the 10-second sound bite, in media scrums, in extended debate, and otherwise? In a recent piece in the New Yorker, Ezra Klein explores this issue, with mixed conclusions. Did FDR, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton succeed because of their rhetorical skills?

If so, the Liberals’ interim leader, Bob Rae, should be a hands-down winner. But the myth of his “failed” Ontario premiership still hounds him.

Why does this fantasy persist? In early 1991, I became deputy minister of industry, trade and technology. For 18 months I worked closely with Bob Rae on two of his highest priority projects — saving Algoma Steel in Sault Saint Marie and securing Bombardier’s purchase of de Havilland Aircraft in Downsview from Boeing Inc. His dedication and negotiating skills in these two successful endeavours, and several other industrial restructurings, were remarkable.

As these activities proceeded, a stimulus budget, resulting in a large deficit, together with continuing high levels of unemployment, caused both labour and employer unrest. Our ministry undertook a detailed analysis of key economic and social indicators to determine whether, as was being alleged, Ontario was headed toward the dumpster.

In mid-1992, we delivered our report to the premier’s multipartite Council on Economic Renewal. Here’s what we found in our comparisons with Alberta, Quebec and 12 U.S. states, including Massachusetts, California, New York and others bordering the Great Lakes:

• On a GDP per capita basis, Ontario ranked as one of the most productive economies amongst the comparators.

• In the decade before the Rae government’s election, Ontario had lost over 4 per cent of its manufacturing employment, triple the loss in Alberta and double that in Quebec over the same period — a substantial inherited problem.

• Despite the loss of those jobs, Ontario’s manufacturing sector earnings had gone from the lowest among the Great Lakes jurisdictions in 1987 to the second highest in 1991.

• Unemployment, at 9.6 per cent, was high, but lower than Quebec and below the Canadian average of 10.3 per cent. In the recent 2008-09 recession, Ontario’s unemployment rate was higher, for three years, than the Canadian average, something that never happened under Rae’s leadership.

• On other tests — labour participation rates, business failures, export performance, R&D expenditures, education enrolment — Ontario matched or outranked most of the comparator jurisdictions.

By 1995, Ontario led the way in growth among all Canadian provinces; private sector investment had increased dramatically; labour productivity was at an all-time high, as were manufacturing exports; health-care costs were under improved control and a broad strategy for deficit reduction was in place.

Nonetheless, the beefs continued from both the right and left. The 1991 stimulus budget, increasing the deficit of several billion inherited from the previous government, was, in those pre-TARP days, anathema to the business community. A $9.7 billion shortfall (versus today’s $15 billion) was denounced as outrageous. Conrad Black vowed never to invest in Ontario while an NDP government was in power — later contradicting himself by acquiring a piece of the Southam newspaper chain.

Labour, despite Rae’s successful efforts in saving thousands of jobs at Algoma, de Havilland and other large troubled firms, never forgave him for the Social Contract and the Rae Days resulting in cutbacks in work days for public servants — relatively minor compared to the wage and benefits freeze announced in Ontario’s recent budget. Nor was he credited with reforms to the Labor Relations Act, substantially enhancing union organizing rights, soon to be reversed by the successor Harris government.

Other noteworthy achievements included the Jobs Ontario program; incentives to employers to hire people on welfare; the expanded child-care program; the new Trillium Drug Plan giving affordable access to those in need of therapeutic drugs; renewed emphasis on aboriginal affairs; and a deep commitment to the success of our federal system, leading to an affirmative vote in Ontario on the national referendum on the Charlottetown accord.

What am I missing? If I’m right, has the media failed to fairly analyze the record and instead succumbed to the erroneous, revisionist history of Bob Rae’s detractors?

Tim Armstrong is a lawyer, whose assignments in the Ontario government included deputy minister of industry and trade and agent general for the Asia-Pacific Region.