The Honourable Carolyn Bennett

Minister of State (Public Health)

St. Paul’s (Ontario)

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 being Chair of the Subcommittee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities (Human Resources Development Committee). In 2003, she was named Minister of State (Public Health).

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 20 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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