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Peder Kolstad was a Norwegian politician for the Farmers's Party and prime minister of Norway from 19. He worked as a teacher at agricultural schools and was also involved in organizational work and local politics.

Education and career
Born to a farmer's family in Borge, now part of Fredrikstad in Østfold county he got a degree from Kalnes school of agriculture in 1899 and a degree from the Agricultural University of Norway at Ås, Akershus county in 1902. He subsequently worked as teachers at agricultural schools in Asker, Akerhus county and Nedenes, Aust-Agder county. Returning to Østfold and Kalnes school of agriculture in 1905, he became principal at the school in 1912.

In Østfold, Kolstad became engaged in organisational work related to agriculture. He served as leader of the Tune chapter of the Norwegian Agrarian Association, became leader of the Østfold county chapter and member of the national board of the organisation. He also sat on the board of the agricultural cooperative Felleskjøpet.

He was a member of the municipal council in Tune from 1919 to 1928; in the period from 1919 to 1922 also part of the herredsstyre (executive committee of the municipal council).

In the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1921, Kolstad topped the list for the Farmers' Party in Østfold and was elected to the Parliament of Norway and subsequently re-elected in all elections until his death. He served in the Standing Committee on Finance in all his parliamentary career, becoming head of the committee in 1928. He also served as secretary for the Farmers' Party's parliametary group in all his years in Parliament and was elected President of the Odelsting in 1931.

Formation of the cabinet
The Farmers' Party had only 25 av the 150 seats in the Parliament; the weakest foundation for a cabinet in Norway at all times. The party chose Kolstad as prime minister instead of the party leader Jens Hundseid to a large degree because he was seen as being moderate and better at cooperationg with other parties and politicians than Hundseid. The party also saw it as an advantage that he was well versed in financial policies.

Never having been in government before, the party lacked experienced persons for the minister positions. The Cabinet got 10 members. Kolstad took the position of Minister of Finance in addition to being prime minister. He set ultimatum that Jon Sundby should take the position as Minister of Agriculture; Sundby himself orginally wanted to stay in the Parliament as leader of the Standing Committee on Agriculture. The most surprisingly and controversial choice was major Vidkun Quisling as Minister of Defence. Quisling had not been involved in party politics and Sundby did not personally know him. Kolstad stated that Quisling's knowledge about Russia as demonstrated in his writings would be useful for the cabinet.

Eastern Greenland dispute
Erik the Red's Land

Health problems and death
Kolstad suffered various health problems during his time as prime minister and was hospitalised in January 1932. He died of a blood clot on 5 March 1932. Jens Hundseid became prime minister for a new Farmers' party government on 14 March.

Personal life and legacy
Kolstad married Ingrid Mathiesen, daughter of an industrialist, in 1905. He was post mortem father in law to Liberal politician and women rights activist Eva Kolstad and the grandfather to film critic Harald Kolstad.

He was interred at Tune churchyard. A road in Sarpsborg is named after him.

In the book Norsk statsministre (English: Norwegian prime ministers) from 2010 edited by Gudleiv Forr and Per Egil Hegge, historians rated Kolstad as one of Norway's weakest prime ministers with a grade of 2 on a scale from 1 to 6. The historians put weight on how long the person served as prime minister in their evaluation.