: Distinguished Fellow
The Honourable Ed Fast, PC, KC, spent 24 years practicing corporate and commercial law in Abbotsford, British Columbia, with a particular focus on real estate development.
Elected as Member of Parliament for Abbotsford in 2006, he was re-elected in 2008, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2021. Among other responsibilities in Parliament, Fast served for three years as Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice & Human Rights. He served as Minister of International Trade and for the Asia-Pacific Gateway under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and for almost five years led Canada’s most ambitious trade agenda ever, leading negotiations on free trade agreements with the European Union (CETA), South Korea, Ukraine, and the original Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries. After the 2015 federal election, Fast served variously as the Conservative Shadow Minister for Environment, Industry, and Finance. He recently retired from federal politics and is committed to sharing his knowledge and experience with trade-oriented organizations.
Thanks to his long and distinguished career in public service – which also included three terms as an Abbotsford City Councillor, and two terms as an Abbotsford School Trustee – Fast has developed an extensive network of contacts within the global trade and investment community and within Canada’s community of political and business decision-makers.
In 2011, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel). He has also been awarded both the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and King’s Coronation Medal for service to his community and country.
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