Sylvia Brustad

Brustad graduated from high school in 1983, and attended the media courses at the folk high school in Ringsaker Municipality until 1985. She then worked as a journalist, among other publications she worked for LO-aktuelt, the news publication of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions.

Parliament

Brustad was elected to a county council seat in Hedmark following the local elections of 1987. In the 1989 election, she was elected to a seat in the Norwegian Parliament and left county politics.

Government

In cabinet Jagland which held office between 1996 and 1997, she was Minister for Children and Family Affairs. She was later Minister for Local Government and Regional Development in the first cabinet Stoltenberg between 2000 and 2001. Following the electoral victory of the 2005 elections, Brustad became Minister of Health and Care Services in the second cabinet Stoltenberg. She was moved to the post of Minister of Trade and Industry in June 2008 and left the government in October 2009.

Brustad became known for her role as Minister for Child and Family Affairs in 1996 when a law restricting the opening hours of shops on Sundays, holidays and after nine in the evening was passed. Only stores smaller than 100 square metres were allowed to remain open, such shops were somewhat disparagingly nicknamed "Brustadbuer" ("Brustad shacks"), until the law was quietly repealed in 2003. Brustad herself claimed that she had not personally advocated the law, but that she was required to follow through on a decision within the Labour Party.