patricia ann paddy torsney pc born december 19 1962 in burlington ontario is a canadian politician she is a former member of the canadian house of commons previously representing the riding of burlington for the liberal party in 2006 torsney was defeated by conservative party candidate mike wallacetorsney was educated at mcgill university in montreal receiving a bachelor of commerce degree in 1985 from 1985 to 1989 she worked as a special assistant to the office of david peterson the liberal premier of ontario torsney then worked as a senior consultant to the firm of hill and knowlton from 1989 to 1993torsney was first elected to parliament in the election of 1993 defeating her closest opponent progressive conservative mike kuegle by almost 10000 votes the progressive conservatives had previously held the riding since 1972 under retiring member of parliament mp bill kemplingthe pcs under jean charest targeted burlington in the 1997 election but torsney again defeated kuegle by just over 3500 votes she won an easier victory in the 2000 election against a more divided oppositionthe newly formed conservative party of canada made a strong bid for the riding in the 2004 election running local councillor mike wallace against torsney most observers believed that torsney would lose however a lastminute resurgence in liberal support resulted in a 4000vote victory in the 2006 election she again faced off against wallace losing to him by 2570 votes in the 2008 election torsney lost to wallace by 9027 votestorsney was the parliamentary secretary to the minister of the environment from 1998 to 2000 on july 20 2004 she was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of international cooperationin 2002 torsney chaired a committee which recommended several changes to canadas drug laws including the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuanatorsney is president of canadian group of the interparliamentary union and has worked for the worldwide abolition of land mines she is also a former board member of unicef canadain 2007 liberal party of canada leader stphane dion appointed torsney as deputy principal secretary in the office of the leader of the opposition she resigned from the position in april 2008