Bridget Antoinette Brennan Pastoor (born April 13, 1940) 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 ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who served as a member of the

Alberta legislative assembly The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

from 22 November 2004 to May 5, 2015. Pastoor began her political life when she ran in the 1998 election for a seat on the

Lethbridge City Council The Lethbridge City Council is the legislative governing body that represents the citizens of Lethbridge, Alberta. The council is composed of the mayor and eight councillors. The mayor is the city's chief elected official and the city manager is ...

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 106,550 in the 2023 Alberta municipal censuses, 2023 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

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 ...

. After serving two terms on city council and with the resignation of

Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party () is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1905, it is the oldest active political party in Alberta and was the dominant political party until the 1921 election, with the first three provincial ...

leader Ken Nicol, she decided to run in the 2004 provincial election to take his place in the

Lethbridge-East Lethbridge-East is a Provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Alberta, Canada, covering the eastern half of the city of Lethbridge. The district is one of 87 in the province mandated to r ...

riding. She won the riding with 5,340 votes, beating her nearest competitor Rod Fong by 637 votes.

Political career

Pastoor was elected to her first term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the constituency of Lethbridge-East on November 22, 2004. She was re-elected on March 3, 2008. On November 21, 2011, Pastoor

crossed the floor In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...

to join the Progressive Conservative government of Premier

Alison Redford Alison Merrilla Redford (born March 7, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. She was the 14th premier of Alberta, having served in this capacity from October 7, 2011, to March 23, 2014. Redford was born in Kitimat, British Columbia ...

. She had actually been active in the PCs for most of the 1970s and 1980s, and had been a close friend of Redford for many years. Rumours that she was considering crossing the floor had begun in 2009 and in 2010 she admitted to considering switching parties. Pastoor was re-elected in the 2012 provincial election under the Progressive Conservative banner. In January 2015 she announced she would not seek another term.

Personal life

In her farewell speech to the Alberta Legislature on March 26, 2015, Pastoor noted she had three daughters, two of whom were elected members of city councils in Alberta: Bridget Mearns, Lethbridge City Council and Florence Christophers, Okotoks Town Council. She also mentioned she was a grandmother and great-grandmother.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta biography
1940 births Alberta Liberal Party MLAs Lethbridge city councillors Living people People from St. Boniface, Winnipeg Politicians from Winnipeg Women MLAs in Alberta Women municipal councillors in Alberta 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 21st-century Canadian women politicians {{Alberta-MLA-stub