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Helen Bjørnøy

Norwegian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ435376 ↗
Source-derived summary

Helen Oddveig Bjørnøy (born 18 February 1954 in Ålesund, Norway) is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician (Socialist Left Party), currently County Governor of Buskerud. From October 2005 to October 2007, she was Minister of the Environment in the Red-Green Coalition cabinet headed by Jens Stoltenberg. On 18 October 2007 she was relieved from her duties in the government and replaced by Erik Solheim (Socialist Left Party).

Biography

Bjørnøy graduated from MF Norwegian School of Theology in 1980 and was ordained a minister in the Church of Norway the same year. She held a teaching position as assistant professor in the field of Ethics at Lovisenberg Deaconal University College from 1991 to 1999. Her last position before entering into government was Secretary General for the Church City Mission, Kirkens Bymisjon (1999–2005).

Bjørnøy suffered an illness in 2016, taking an indefinite leave as Buskerud's County Governor. In 2020, she was one of those who called for further review of a new biolaw being proposed in Norway. She has advocated for the recognition of children's rights and the protection of the female body.

Bjørnøy is married to Tortein Lalim.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Helen Bjørnøy” as norwegian politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1954, 2005, 2007, 1980—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1954-02-18. The account is most persuasive where Helen, Bjørnøy and Norwegian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as norwegian politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q435376. VIAF identifies the subject as 135148995740659750353. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2005, 2007 and 1980.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Helen Bjørnøy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Helen Bjørnøy primary sources, Helen Bjørnøy archive and Helen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Helen Bjørnøy”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Helen Bjørnøy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.