Biographical notes
Sheila and Victor Goldbloom – A dynamic duo
Born in Montreal in 1923, Dr. Victor Goldbloom studied at Selwyn House and Lower Canada College before moving on to McGill University where he received a Bachelor of Science in 1944 and his medical degree in 1945. He obtained a Diploma in Pediatrics in 1950 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 1992.
After practicing as a pediatrician, Dr. Goldbloom was elected in 1966 as the MNA for the Montreal riding of D'Arcy-McGee. Re-elected in 1970, 1973 and 1976, Dr. Goldbloom was named the first ever Minister of State responsible for Quality of the Environment in 1970 by Premier Robert Bourassa. He later served as Minister of Municipal Affairs as well as Minister of the Environment. He was the first member of the Jewish community to become a cabinet minister in Quebec. He resigned from provincial politics in October of 1979.
After his political career, Dr. Goldbloom was President and CEO of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews from 1979 to 1987. From 1991 until 1999, he was Canada's Commissioner of Official Languages.
On top of his many other volunteer commitments, which include his roles as honorary president of the Jules and Paul-Émile Léger Foundation and president of Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Montreal, Dr. Goldbloom is finishing his term as chair of Quebec Jewish Congress, the Quebec Division of Canadian Jewish Congress. Since 2002, he has chaired the Board of the Health and Social Services Agency of the Island of Montreal.
In 1983 Dr. Goldbloom made a Member of the Order of Canada and, in 2000, he became a Companion – the country’s highest distinction. In 1991 he was also made an Officer of l’Ordre National du Québec.
Before meeting Victor Goldbloom in New York in 1947, Sheila (born Barshay-Rothstein) was working for the League of Women Voters in New York. The couple married and moved to Montreal in 1948 and after having three children, Sheila Goldbloom went back to school to do her master's in social work at McGill.
In addition to being a social worker and an Associate Professor at the McGill School of Social Work, Mrs. Goldbloom has dedicated her time to numerous community organizations including Centraide, the Red Feather Foundation, Recreation for the Handicapped, Refuge Juan Moreno, Institut Philippe-Pinel, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Friends of the McGill Library, the YWCA of Montreal, Jewish Family Services, Batshaw Youth and Family Services, the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex, l'Abri en Ville and Meals on Wheels. In 1999, she became a founding board member of the Foundation of Greater Montreal.
In 2008, Mrs. Goldbloom was appointed co-chairperson of the provincial commission on the living conditions of Quebec seniors. There she spoke out on behalf of vulnerable seniors who sought to be treated with greater dignity and humanity.
Mrs. Goldbloom was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998 and became a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec in 2008.
Still equally active as octogenarians as they have been their whole lives, the dynamic Goldbloom duo is one of the few couples ever to receive both the Ordre national du Québec and the Order of Canada, the highest provincial and national distinctions.
Dr. and Mrs. Goldbloom have three children who are equally active in their communities. Michael, presently the Principal of Bishop’s University, was the former Publisher of The Gazette and of The Toronto Star and a former President of Alliance Quebec. Jonathan is the founder and president of Jonathan Goldbloom & Associates, a Montreal communications firm. Their daughter Susan Restler lives in Brooklyn, New York and is co-founder of Knowledge in the Public Interest which offers strategic and financial consultation services to non-profit organizations.
