About Margret Kopala

Born in 1945 in northeastern Alberta, Margret was educated in Edmonton where she became Eastglen Composite High’s first girl president of the students’ union. She graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.A in English literature and a B.F.A. in Drama then traveled in Europe before working in British television production, mostly for the BBC, and in the Canadian feature film industry.

Citizen’s initiatives on the constitution led to her being selected as an “Ordinary Canadian” in the conferences leading to the Charlottetown Accord. Active in citizen based public policy forums as well as church and community life, Margret’s articles and letters have been widely published and can be read on this website. She has also produced and hosted community television shows and regularly provides media commentary on conservative issues.

In 1997 she was the Progressive Conservative candidate in Ottawa West Nepean and then became one of the earliest and most active proponents of unity between the PC and Reform parties. She subsequently contested the nominations in Ottawa West Nepean of the newly formed Canadian Alliance and Conservative parties in 2000 and 2005 respectively. As chair of the National Debaters’ Forum, she organized nationally televised debates between leading politicians, commentators and academics such as David Frum, Hugh Segal, Ted Morton, Charles Taylor and Tom Courchene.

No longer active in partisan politics, Margret concluded several years of writing freelance columns for The Ottawa Citizen in 2009. She continues to write on public policy issues and, after serving as Director of Research and Policy Development for the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies, she founded and served as President of the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform until 2015.

Resident in Ottawa since 1986, she is married to political philosopher and journalist Dr.Robert Sibley. They have one grown son, psychologist Dr. Daniel Kopala-Sibley.

For a comprehensive overview of Margret's life and accomplishments, please visit her Wikipedia page.

June 2015