Paula Simons is an Independent Senator from Alberta. Before joining the Senate of Canada in October of 2018, she was a political columnist with the Edmonton Journal, where she won two National Newspaper Awards. She earned a further six NNA citations of merit for her columns and editorials on Alberta politics. Simons’ work has also been honoured by Journalists for Human Rights, the UNESCO Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom, and the Canadian Bar Association. Over the course of a 30-year career in journalism, she has also been a radio producer and documentary-maker, a magazine feature writer, a playwright, and an author of popular history.