Monte Kenton Solberg, (born September 17, 1958) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

businessman and politician. Solberg is a former Member of Parliament, representing the riding of

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, R ...

in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

as a member of the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC; , ), sometimes referred to as the Tories, is a Government of Canada, federal List of political parties in Canada, political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main Right-wing ...

. He was the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and later served as the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development. He has also served as Critic for

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

, National Revenue, and Human Resources Development. Solberg is now a Principal at New West Public Affairs, a Canadian national public affairs firm based in western Canada, and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Solberg was the owner of the right-wing news aggregate website, News Hub Nation, from which he frequently blogged about current events and features exclusive content from conservative personalities.

Early life

Solberg was born in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, the son of Shirley Jean (O'Neil) and Stanley James Solberg, a broadcasting pioneer. A former broadcaster and businessman, Solberg is of Norwegian ancestry.

Political career

He was elected as a Reform Party Member of Parliament (MP) in 1993 and 1997, and as a Canadian Alliance MP in 2000. In 2001, Solberg was one of 13 MPs who were suspended from the Canadian Alliance caucus for criticizing the leadership of Stockwell Day. He sat as an Independent Alliance MP for the summer, joining the Democratic Representative Caucus in September before returning to the Alliance in April 2002. He was also one of four Alliance MPs who agreed to sit with the Progressive Conservative caucus (to preserve their official party status) after the December 9, 2003, creation of the merged Conservative Party, as the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parliamentary caucuses were not officially merged until a few weeks later. He was re-elected as a Conservative MP in the 2004 election. Solberg kept a high-profile

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, and in 2005, is thought to have made history when, using his

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

, he blogged from the floor of the House of Commons immediately upon the passage of Bill C-38, which provided legal recognition of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. Solberg was opposed to the bill. In 2006, Solberg again won his

riding, with 79.7% of the vote, the second highest winning percentage in the country for the 2006 federal election. He suspended updating his blog after being appointed Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. In the January 4, 2007, cabinet shuffle, Solberg was appointed the new minister of Human Resources and Social Development, replacing Diane Finley.

Retirement and present status

Thought by some to seek a leadership bid of the Conservative party, Solberg surprised many when he announced on September 4, 2008, that he was retiring from politics and would not be a candidate in the 40th Canadian federal election. Solberg is a columnist with the '' Calgary Sun'', a contributor to Sun News Network, formerly a full-time consultant for Fleishman-Hillard Canada, and now Principal at New West Public Affairs, a public affairs firm based in Calgary. He also serves as a Governor with the International Development Research Centre, a crown corporation dedicated to generating and applying new knowledge to meet the challenges facing the world's poorest countries.

References

External links

Solberg's official Blog
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Monte Solberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solberg, Monte 1958 births Businesspeople from Calgary Canadian Alliance MPs Canadian evangelicals Canadian people of Norwegian descent Conservative Party of Canada MPs Living people Canadian male bloggers Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada People from Brooks, Alberta Politicians from Calgary Reform Party of Canada MPs Writers from Calgary Politicians affected by a party expulsion process 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada