Biography

Peter Goldring has served the people of Edmonton East as their Member of Parliament since being first elected in 1997. He has been a strong voice for the riding in Ottawa, bringing national attention to constituents concerns on many issues, such as veterans affairs housing affordability, health care and criminal justice.

His present parliamentary roles include being Joint Chair of the Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament and serving as a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development since 2006.

As Joint Chair of the Library Committee Mr. Goldring took the lead as the Committee studied the office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which led to a rare unanimous Senate and House of Commons report.

On the Foreign Affairs Committee he has been involved in the preparation and writing of reports on Canada’s role in Afghanistan; the Americas; democracy development; studies on human rights in China, Cuba, Sri Lanka and Iran; and a look at the corporate social responsibility of Canadian companies operating overseas.


Other Parliamentary Roles

In 1997 Peter Goldring was appointed the Official Opposition Critic for Veterans Affairs and a member of the Shadow Cabinet, a position that he held for more than three years.  Mr. Goldring served as Deputy Critic for Intergovernmental Affairs in 1997-98 (Party leader Preston Manning was the critic) and in June 1999, was appointed to head up the Alberta MP Caucus Election Readiness, a position he held until the federal election in November 2000. In April 2000, Mr. Goldring was appointed as the Official Opposition Housing Critic and in August of that year was appointed Deputy Critic for National Defence and Public Works. In June 2001 he was appointed Critic for Public Works. From 1997 to late 2001, Mr. Goldring served as a member of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs (SCONDVA), and then was elected Vice-Chair of the committee in early 2001.

He is active in numerous Parliamentary Associations, including Canada-Europe, Canada-Chile, Canada-Kazakhstan and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, while serving as the Vice-Chair of the Canada-Caribbean, Vice-Chair of Canada-Poland and Vice-Chair (and former Chair) of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group (which had a membership of more than 145 Members of Parliament and Senators under his leadership). He is also a member of several inter-parliamentary organizations, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCEPA), the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association and the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA).


Working On The National Stage

Mr. Goldring’s many political successes have included the resolution of a number of long-standing veterans’ issues during his time as Veterans Affairs Critic from 1997 to 2000: the Hong Kong Veterans Slave Labour concerns; the Merchant Navy Veterans concerns; the Lt. Col. McCrae Medals issue; depleted uranium testing; the refurbishing of the Vimy Memorial; the return of the Unknown Soldier to Canda; Gulf War Syndrome awareness; and the Ortona Christmas with a follow-up life-size bronze monument – the ‘Price of Peace’ – now on a permanent world stage in Ortona, Italy.
 
In 2003 Mr. Goldring launched the “Cattle Drive to Parliament Hill” – a farm awareness campaign in which he led a cattle truck transport more than 9,000 kilometres, speaking at 34 functions in 17 days, from British Columbia to Parliament Hill.

Mr. Goldring has worked extensively for the rights of the victims of notorious pedophile Karl Toft and his associates at the Kingsclear Training School in New Brunswick. His work led to a $1.5 million investigation by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP into an alleged cover-up of RCMP involvement. The investigation led to changes being made to improve RCMP investigative methods.

On April 23, 1999, Peter Goldring was the first Member of Parliament to call the 1932-33 planned famine inflicted by the USSR on Ukraine a genocide – a fact that has since been accepted by Parliament as a whole.

He has been working to facilitate closer trade ties between Canada and Eastern Europe as well as Canada and the Caribbean.


Representing Canada

In 2003, Mr. Goldring took on the Turks and Caicos debate, which in effect was a call for greatly enhanced foreign trade and renewed development opportunities for Canada in the Caribbean region. Mr. Goldring’s efforts were recognized by Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, who appointed him as Foreign Affairs Critic for the Caribbean.

Mr. Goldring was asked by then Foreign Affairs Critic, Stockwell Day to represent the Conservative Party as an observer in the run-off presidential election in Ukraine on November 21, 2004. This historical event grew into the “Orange Revolution,” during which Mr. Goldring stayed in Ukraine after the election to monitor and report from the streets of the revolution to international media on the crisis. He stayed until the Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled ten days later for a new election. Mr. Goldring returned to Ukraine as a parliamentary observer for that December 26, 2004 election and has returned four times since.

In 2006 he was selected to observe the Ukraine parliamentary election in March, with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and to represent the government on a special Foreign Affairs Canada fact finding and election monitoring mission to Haiti. He has since served as an election monitor for the Organization of American States (OAS) in Guyana and with the OSCE in elections in Ukraine (four times), Georgia (twice) and Albania. He has also represented Canada at meetings of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region (SCPAR).


In the Community

Mr. Goldring has been very active in raising awareness for affordable housing issues and resolutions. In 2000 he published a book on the matter called – “Housing Affordability: An Edmonton Concern and a National Challenge.” In 2008 he wrote a sequel – “Housing Affordability: Still An Edmonton Concern and a National Challenge.”  Mr. Goldring believes in challenging convention in a rational dispassionate method to encourage better use of funds to help those most in need. Mr. Goldring wears his social conscience on his sleeve day by day, and says we must help those that cannot help themselves, but we must also help as many as possible to develop their own self-worth and independence, giving them the opportunity to grow in society with a hand up not just a hand out. He was also instrumental in saving the McCauley Community Hockey Rink from demolition.

In 2008 Mr. Goldring served as the federal government representative on the Edmonton Committee to End Homelessness. He advocated for the consideration of cost-effective private sector solutions to the growing need.


Awards

Mr. Goldring has been recognized on numerous occasions for his contributions to Alberta, Canada and the world. He has received the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2002, the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005, the Ukrainian Community Award in 2005 in recognition and appreciation of outstanding contribution and support to the Ukrainian community in Alberta during his years of public service and the Tak award for his work in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution. He also has received awards from the Loyal Edmonton Regiment for his work with veterans and a homelessness award for his work with the homeless.


Personal Life

Mr. Goldring was born in Toronto in 1944 and lived in Ontario and Quebec for 28 years. Since 1972 he has been residing in Edmonton. As a successful businessman, Peter has extensive community and business ties to Edmonton, and many other cities in Canada. He has been an advocate of Canadian Unity long before his political career began and has been successful in standing up for Quebecers to help defend against separation and earlier weak federal representation.

Mr. Goldring’s first job was in Oshawa, Ontario but then served with the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1962 to 1965 where he received
electronics and police training.
 
After his service he worked in the Toronto marketing office of Unelco Systems Ltd., an electrical systems manufacturer, based in Pointe Claire, Quebec. In 1972, he was transferred to Edmonton to open and manage Unelco’s new Alberta office. In 1973 Mr. Goldring ran a successful campaign to have smoke detectors mandated in Edmonton’s apartment buildings, the first city in Canada to do so. In 1974, after completing his commitment to work two years for Unelco in Alberta, he left to start his own business, Systems by Sentron (Canada) Ltd. Sentron was a supplier and manufacturer of electrical systems for thousands of buildings in western Canada. Over the next 23 years, he built it into a successful electrical system manufacturing, distribution and servicing company. He sold the last component of his company to run for public office in 1997.

Mr. Goldring has been a member of the Associated Commercial Travellers Association since 1972. He also served on the Alberta Government Suppression Systems Regulatory Development Committee and as Vice-President of the Alberta Sound Contractors Association.

Mr. Goldring founded the Edmonton Chapter of the Montreal based Special Committee for Canadian Unity, after travelling to Quebec City for the 1995 referendum vote and being appalled at the level Canadian unity and pride had sunk to. Following that suspenseful evening, an epiphany, he flew back to Edmonton, determined to add his voice to Canadian Unity efforts. The possibility of a Canadian break-up drove Mr. Goldring to rethink his life, his priorities, his family responsibility and plunge into National politics. He then succeeded to be elected in his first election contest in 1997 on a platform to support Canadian unity, a strong united Canada of equal citizens. He subsequently was re-elected in 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2008.

His hobbies and interests include hunting, fishing, target shooting, boating and he has motor homed extensively throughout North America. Mr. Goldring has a strong interest in and belief that Canada’s history at war and in peace has not been factually taught in Canada’s schools. “Canada’s history, truthfully told, would help foster Canadian pride and unity,” says Mr. Goldring.

Mr. Goldring has been married to his wife Lorraine for 35 years. They have two daughters, Corinna and Kristina, son-in-law Tom and two granddaughters, Katelin and Alexandra.

In the 2009 riding nomination Mr. Goldring received the overwhelming majority support (over 80%) of Conservative members in Edmonton East to once again represent them in the next election.

Updated November 2009