Ketil Solvik-Olsen | |
---|---|
Minister of Transport and Communications | |
In office 16 October 2013 –31 August 2018 | |
Prime Minister | Erna Solberg |
Preceded by | Marit Arnstad |
Succeeded by | Jon Georg Dale |
First Deputy Leader of the Progress Party | |
In office 8 May 2021 –30 April 2023 | |
Leader | Sylvi Listhaug |
Preceded by | Sylvi Listhaug |
Succeeded by | Hans Andreas Limi |
Second Deputy Leader of the Progress Party | |
In office 26 May 2013 –5 May 2019 | |
Leader | Siv Jensen |
Preceded by | Per Arne Olsen |
Succeeded by | Terje Søviknes |
Member of the Norwegian Parliament | |
In office 1 October 2005 –16 October 2013 | |
Constituency | Rogaland |
Personal details | |
Born | Time,Rogaland,Norway | 14 February 1972
Political party | Progress |
Spouse | Tone Solvik-Olsen |
Children | 2 |
Alma mater | University of Toledo |
Website | Official website |
Ketil Solvik-Olsen (born 14 February 1972) is a Norwegian politician of the Progress Party. He served as Minister of Transport and Communications in the Norwegian government from 2013 to 2018,and was a member of the Norwegian Parliament for Rogaland county from 2005 until 2013. He resigned in 2018 when moving temporary to the U.S in support of his wife's medical career.
He has served in the Progress Party leadership over several decades. He served as the party's second deputy leader from 2013 to 2019 and first deputy leader from 2021 to 2023.
Today he is involved in various roles in business,having recently been CEO of Seabrokers Fundamentering (a Norwegian construction/foundation company),as well as serving on the board of a variety tech/mobilty startup companies.
Solvik-Olsen was born and raised in Time,Rogaland to self-employed businessman Aksel Emil Solvik-Olsen (born 1943) and socionom Berit Lagergren (born 1943). After finishing Rosseland Elementary School,he attended Bryne Upper Secondary school,and later an International Baccalaureate at St. Olav Upper Secondary school in Stavanger from 1990 to 1992.
He was an exchange student to the United States at Blissfield High School,Michigan from 1989 to 1990. From 1994 to 1997 he studied political science and social economics (summa cum laude) at the University of Toledo,Ohio. [1] He spent over five years in the US,including work for Disney,as a volunteer during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics,and as an intern in the United States Senate. [2]
Solvik-Olsen joined the Progress Party's Youth when he was fifteen years old,in 1987. [3] [4] He held various positions locally within the youth organisation from 1988 to 1992. [1] He made his way into national politics initially by working as a political advisor and aide to Øyvind Vaksdal and Siv Jensen for five years,having moved to Oslo around 1998. [3]
Aside from being deputy in the Oslo city council,he had never before served as an elected official when he was elected to the Storting from Rogaland in 2005. He was re-elected in 2009. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment from 2005 to 2011,and delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 2011. [1]
Solvik-Olsen announced in 2012 that he would not seek renomination for the 2013 parliamentary election due to family concerns including his wife's career as a medical doctor. [5]
After the 2013 election,Solvik-Olsen was appointed Minister of Transportation in Erna Solberg's new cabinet. [6]
Before taking up the post,the Progress Party had announced that it would be reducing the amount of toll roads,and this was widely expected to be one of the most important transformation reforms. [7] Despite immediately beginning to dismantle some existing toll booths,and cancelling some planned toll projects,there was disappointment among his party's core constituency over the slow pace of the reform. [8]
In late August 2018,he resigned as minister to join his wife in Birmingham,Alabama,where she had received a position at a children's hospital. He did not rule out returning to politics,and added that he would stay active in the party. He was succeeded by minister of agriculture and food,Jon Georg Dale. [9]
At the 2013 party congress,Solvik-Olsen was elected second deputy leader of the Progress Party. [10] He held this post until the party congress in May 2019,and did not seek re-election. He was succeeded by Terje Søviknes. [11]
Following Siv Jensen's announced resignation,the party designated Solvik-Olsen as first deputy leader,along with Søviknes as second deputy and Sylvi Listhaug as party leader. [12] He was subsequently elected as first deputy at the party convention in May,along with Listhaug as leader. [13] On 1 March 2023,he announced that he wouldn't be seeking re-election as deputy leader. [14] He was succeeded by Hans Andreas Limi at the party convention in April. [15]
Solvik-Olsen has stated that he thinks Norway needs a "liberalism that is pragmatic". [16] He was noted as a critic of the Red-Green governmental environmental policies,claiming their policies to be based too much on "symbol politics" and unrealistic ambitious goals,instead of seeking feasible realistic options. [16] He has said that he is personally social conservative,though liberal with regards to how other people wish to live their lives. [16]
He has stated that Ronald Reagan is his foremost political hero,though he also has pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy decorating his home. [3]
He is married to Tone Solvik-Olsen,a medical doctor. [17] Together they have two children,one girl and one boy. The family currently resides in the Voksenåsen neighborhood in the Oslo borough of Vestre Aker. [18] Solvik-Olsen has described himself as an "atypical Progress Party-person" due to his relatively careful and modest lifestyle,not fitting several stereotypes of the traditional party supporter. [3]
A lifelong teetotaler,he abstains from all stimulants,including tobacco,and coffee. He is however,a notorious aficionado of chocolate,an addiction which has been described as "morbid". [19] He compensates the high-sugar diet by eating very small regular meals,and skipping lunch altogether. [20] Since his stay in the United States,Solvik-Olsen has been an automobile enthusiast;his collection includes a second generation 1985 model Cadillac Seville,a convertible Dodge Stratus,in addition to over 80 model cars. [3] He is a supporter of Bryne FK football club. [21]
Solvik-Olsen publicly announced his withdrawal from the Church of Norway in 2010,after the church leadership had publicly opposed oil exploration in Lofoten and Vesterålen. [22] He is connected to Pentecostalism,as he for several years has attended the Pentecostal congregation Filadelfia Oslo. [3] While his wife is a member of the congregation and his two children are baptised there,he is not a formal member himself since it requires believer's baptism,and he considers his childhood baptism to be valid and sufficient. He has stated that as of present he only has his personal direct contact with God,not being part of any "earthly membership lists". [22]
The Progress Party,is a political party in Norway. It is generally positioned to the right of the Conservative Party,and is considered the most right-wing party to be represented in parliament. The FrP has traditionally self-identified as classical-liberal and as a libertarian party. It is often described as right-wing populist,which has been disputed in public discourse,and has been described by various academics as far-right. By 2020,the party attained a growing national conservative faction. After the 2017 parliamentary election,it was Norway's third largest political party,with 26 representatives in the Storting. It was a partner in the government coalition led by the Conservative Party from 2013 to 2020.
Per Sandberg is a Norwegian politician for the Capitalist Party and formerly the Progress Party who served as the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries from 2015 to 2018. Sandberg was a member of the Norwegian parliament from 1997 to 2017,and served as chair of the parliamentary standing committees on Justice,and Transport and Communications. He has additionally held the position of first deputy leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2018. In 1997 he was convicted of assault and battery of an asylum seeker. His status as a convicted felon has made him controversial in Norwegian politics.
Terje Søviknes is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party who has served as the mayor of Bjørnafjorden since 2023. He previously served as minister of petroleum and energy from December 2016 to August 2018. From December 2019 to January 2020 he was the minister of the elderly and public health. He also serves as the party's second deputy leader since 2019,a post he previously held from 1999 to 2001.
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian politician who served as the leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2021. She also held the position as Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2020 in the Solberg Cabinet. She was also a member of the Norwegian parliament from Oslo from 1997 to 2021.
Christian Tybring-Gjedde is a Norwegian politician who represented the Progress Party until 2024. He has been a member of the Norwegian parliament since 2005,and was the leader of the Progress Party's Oslo chapter from 2010 to 2014.
Bård AndréHoksrud is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. Since 2005,he has been a member of the Storting. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Food from 2018 to 2019,and as State Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Communications from 2013 to 2015.
Tor Mikkel Wara is a Norwegian politician from the Progress Party,who has served as Justice and Immigration Minister from 2018 to 2019 after the resignation of Sylvi Listhaug.
Per-Willy Trudvang Amundsen is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party who served as Minister of Justice from December 2016 to January 2018. He previously served as state secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development from 2013,and represented Troms in the Norwegian parliament from 2005 until 2013. He was re-elected in 2017.
Ola Elvestuen is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party who served as Minister of Climate and the Environment from 2018 to 2020. He was also the party's deputy leader from 2008 to 2020,and has been an MP for Oslo since 2013.
Sylvi Listhaug is a Norwegian politician who has been the leader of the Progress Party since 2021.
Ingrid Fiskaa is a Norwegian activist and politician for the Socialist Left Party.
Hans Andreas Limi is a Norwegian businessperson and politician for the Progress Party. He is currently an MP for the Akershus constituency since 2013 and the party's first deputy leader since 2023. He previously served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2017 to 2020.
Torstein Tvedt Solberg is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He is currently a member of parliament for Rogaland since 2013,having previously been a deputy member between 2009 and 2013.
Olaug Vervik Bollestad is a Norwegian nurse and politician for the Christian Democratic Party who is a member of Parliament for Rogaland since 2013. She served as the party leader between 2021 and 2024,having been deputy leader from 2015 to 2021. She served as Minister of Agriculture and Food from 2019 to 2021.
Jon Georg Dale is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. He served as Minister of Transport and Communications from 2018 to 2020 and Minister of Agriculture and Food from 2015 to 2018. He was also acting Minister of Justice for 14 days in March 2019 after Tor Mikkel Wara went on sick leave.
Tina Bru is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. From 2020 to 2021,she served as the Minister of Petroleum and Energy. She was elected to the Storting from Rogaland in 2013 and became a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment. She was reelected to the Storting for the period 2017–2021,and continued as a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment.
Une Aina Bastholm is a Norwegian politician and former leader of Green Party. She represented Oslo in the Storting from 2017 to 2021 and during this time was the only member of her party with a parliamentary seat. She was elected to represent Akershus following the 2021 election.
Terje Halleland is a Norwegian builder and politician from the Progress Party. He has served as a member of parliament for Rogaland since 2017. He previously served as a deputy representative between 2005 and 2013.
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