Paul Ramsey is a Canadian academic and politician. A member of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

, he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria. Members ar ...

for Prince George-North in 1991 and re-elected in 1996, serving until 2001.

Biography

Ramsey was born in a suburb of Milwaukee, the son of a manager of a steel fabricating plant and councilman. He started his post-secondary education in chemical engineering at Northwestern University, but after two years switched to literature, receiving a bachelor's (Carroll College) and master's (University of Illinois) degree in English. he taught at the University of Wisconsin, Superior for three years. He met Hazel at Carroll College and they moved to the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

so he could start a Ph.D. In 1975, he got a job as an English instructor at the

College of New Caledonia The College of New Caledonia (CNC) is a post-secondary educational institution that serves the residents of the Central Interior of British Columbia. This region has a population of about 145,000, and it encompasses three school districts: #28 ( ...

in Prince George. He was almost immediately involved in the new union, and treasurer of the provincial College Faculties Federation. He did a short stint as Director of Adult Education at CNC from 1979 to 1982, and got back into union politics as president of the Faculty Association of CNC. From 1987 to 1989, he served as president of the College-Institute Educators Association of British Columbia.

Political career

Ramsey was elected in Prince George North in October 1991. His first cabinet appointment was as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Forests. In September 1993 he was appointed

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

and Minister Responsible for Seniors where he served until February 1996 when he became Minister of Education, Skills and Training. In February 1996 he became Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks. In January 1997 he returned to the Ministry of Education, Skills, and Training. In February 1998 he became Minister of Education, which he remained until September 1999. On September 21, 1999 he was appointed

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

and Corporate Relations. On November 1, 2000 he added the role of Minister Responsible for Northern Development. Following the 1996 election, an unsuccessful

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning * Recall (memory) * ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...

campaign was launched against Ramsey. He did not run for re-election in 2001, and returned to the College of New Caledonia as an English instructor. He was also a Visiting Professor in Political Science at the

University of Northern British Columbia The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is a small, research-intensive public university in British Columbia, Canada. The main campus is located in Prince George, with additional campuses located in Prince Rupert, Terrace, Quesnel, and ...

, and political columnist for the Prince George Citizen. He retired to the Saanich Peninsula in 2005. Ramsey and his wife Hazel have two grown children, Paul and Ann.

Publications

*''Some thoughts on a Northern Ministry for British Columbia,'' Northern Review (Summer 2005)
link

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsey, Paul British Columbia New Democratic Party MLAs Living people Finance ministers of British Columbia Health ministers of British Columbia Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia People from Prince George, British Columbia Politicians from Pittsburgh University of Northern British Columbia faculty Year of birth missing (living people)