LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Tarja Halonen: Finnish Parliament
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Tarja Halonen was an union activist at grass roots level over a long period, serving for many years as the Chair of her own local branch of the Helsinki Office Workers. At that time the branch had over 1000 members, and this gave her a good platform as a candidate for Helsinki City Council and later as a parliamentary candidate, in order to become an MP.
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Tarja Halonen was born on 24 December 1943 in Helsinki in the district of Kallio , which has traditionally been a working-class quarter. Her parents were Vieno Olavi Halonen and Lyyli Elina Loimola. She obtained a Master of Laws from the University of Helsinki in 1968 . Halonen served as the social secretary and organisation secretary of the National Union of Students in Finland in 1969 – 1970 and partly thanks to this she obtained a position as the lawyer of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) for the years 1970 – 1974 . She joined the Social Democratic Party in 1971 .
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Halonen began her political career in earnest in 1974, when Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa appointed her parliamentary secretary. She held that position for a year. In 1977, she was elected to the first of five terms on the Helsinki City Council (serving until 1996), and 1979 saw her elected a member of parliament (MP) for the first of five consecutive terms (until 2000). After five years in parliament, Halonen began to attain more visible roles. From 1984 to 1987, she was chair of the Social Affairs Committee. From 1991 to 1995, she was deputy chair of the Legal Affairs Committee, and she served as chair of the Grand Committee in 1995.
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Tarja is the most anti-US of all the candidates. The best choice is the liberal center-right Sauli Niinisto. Shout his name in your studio, Conan. He is the candidate of Kokoomus, the only party that was denied the access to Finnish gov’t during the Soviet era. Kokoomus was considered too pro-US, too pro-NATO, too pro-Western Human Rights. Tarja is a hard-core socialist, which does not mean that Finland has a left-wing parliamentary majority.
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Halonen says she would be particularly pleased if young expatriates were to ‘discover’ Finland as a place to study and work. Because of their dual citizenship, the children of emigrants have better opportunities to start from the same starting block than others. She points out that Finnish citizenship is ... the key to all of the European Union member states, soon to be 25 in all.
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Halonen explained how Finland's parliament works and its cooperation with parliaments of other European Union member states. She said the two parliaments of Finland and China have cooperated well in a range of ways. Parliaments play an important role in the social life of every country. She thinks that the 16th National Congress of the CPC is an important one for advancing China's democracy and legal system. She hopes that Finland and China can continue to promote exchanges between the parliaments.
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