Paul Forseth

Paul Eugene Forseth (born December 14, 1946) is a Canadian politician, who was a Member of Parliament for British Columbia from 1993 to 2006.

He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for New Westminster—Burnaby in the 1993 federal election, as a member of the Reform Party of Canada, defeating New Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) Dawn Black. He won reelection in 1997 as a Reform Party Member, in 2000 as a member of the Canadian Alliance and in 2004 as a member of the Conservative Party, until Black defeated him in the 2006 election.

During his 12 years of elected office, he was not part of the government, but served from the 'Opposition Benches'.

In the Reform Party, he was instrumental to sponsor major planks of the Reform Party platform published in the Reform "Blue Sheet" concerning 'Justice' and 'Environment' policy, and led House of Commons debates on those subjects.

During his Canadian Alliance tenure, he was part of the 'shadow cabinet' under Stockwell Day, leader of the Official Opposition.

During the Conservative Party term, he was his Party’s lead representative on the Government Operations and Estimates Committee, which investigated the administrative record of Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski. Forseth co-chaired the sub-committee which held in-camera investigative hearings. Radwanski was accused of falsifying documents and other administrative excesses by the Auditor General, (Ottawa Citizen Oct. 01, 2003) After Parliamentary hearings,...
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