Paul G. Thomas is a Professor in the Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, where he has taught since 1969. He holds a BA (Hon) and MA degree from the University of Manitoba and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is the co-author of the best-selling textbook Canadian Public Administration. (Prentice Hall, 1987). He is the author of more than 50 journal articles and book chapters on topics such as parliamentary reform, party caucuses, budgeting, crown corporations, regulation, constitutional reform, organisational change in the public sector, ministerial responsibility and accountability, contracting out the delivery of public services, and performance measurement in the public sector.

He has been a consultant on numerous occasions to federal and provincial governments and to several royal commission and task forces. He served as the first Academic Director of the Manitoba Legislative Internship from 1985 to 1988. In 1985-1986, he was a member of the City of Winnipeg Act Review Committee. From 1987 to 1989 he served as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Manitoba Telephone System. From 1993 to 1999 he served as Editor of the journal, Canadian Public Administration, published by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. In October 1994, Professor Thomas received the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Excellence in Public Administration awarded by the Institute of Public Administration (Manitoba Chapter) and from 1996 to 2002 he was a Senior Fellow of the Canadian Centre for Management Development in Ottawa.

He has twice won university-wide teaching awards and the Outreach Award for the University of Manitoba. In December 1999, he was named the first Duff Roblin Professor of Government at the University of Manitoba. During 2000–2001 he chaired a Review and Implementation Committee, which provided advice to the Minister of Health on the recommendations of the Paediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest Report. He served during 2001 as a member of the Advisory Committee to the task force reviewing the Access to Information Act at the federal level. During 2001–2003, he was the Chairperson of the Regional Planning Advisory Committee, which is preparing recommendations to the Government of Manitoba for a regional plan for Manitoba’s Capital Region.

In 2003, Professor Thomas was awarded by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada the Vanier Medal for exceptional achievement in public administration. Since 2004, he has chaired the Board of Directors of the Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety, and from 2005 he has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.