Minister of State for Public Health
Dr. Carolyn Bennett was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1997 general election and was
re-elected in 2000 and 2004. She was a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and was Chair
of the Liberal Women's Caucus. She also served on the Standing Committee on Government Operations
and Estimates, the Standing Committee on Health and the Standing Joint Committee on the Library of
Parliament, as well as Chair of the sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities (Human
Resources Development Committee). In 2003, she was named Minister of State (Public Health), and was
re-appointed to that position in 2004.
Prior to her election, Dr. Bennett was a family physician and a founding partner of Bedford Medical
Associates in downtown Toronto. She was President of the Medical Staff Association of Women's College
Hospital and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University
of Toronto. Dr. Bennett served on the Boards of Havergal College, Women's College Hospital, the Ontario
Medical Association, and the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto.
In 1986, Dr. Bennett received the Royal Life Saving Society Service Cross -- a Commonwealth award
recognizing her more than twenty years of distinguished service. Dr. Bennett is also author of Kill
or Cure? How Canadians Can Remake their Health Care System, published in October 2000.
Dr. Bennett obtained her degree in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1974, and received
her certification in Family Medicine in 1976. She and her husband Peter O'Brian have two sons.
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