Ms. Paddy Torsney

When she last spoke at Third Age Learning in 2012, Paddy was working in Toronto as a government relations consultant, after 12.5 years as Burlington’s Member of Parliament. (1993-2006), and eighteen months as Deputy Principal Secretary to the Leader of the Liberal Party (2007-8).

Since 2014, Paddy has been representing the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the United Nations in New York.  With its main office in Geneva, the IPU was founded in 1889. It has 178 member parliaments, containing most of the world’s 46,000 members of parliament.

The organization works on Peace and Security, Democracy and Human Rights, and Preventing Conflict.  It’s very actively involved in helping parliaments deliver on the Agenda 2030, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015. It works hard to promote inclusion, particularly of women and of youth in parliament.