Michael Pitfield

Who is Michael Pitfield?

Peter Michael Pitfield, OC PC CVO is a former Canadian Senator and senior civil servant.

He is the youngest son of the late Canadian financier Ward C. Pitfield and the late Grace MacDougall Pitfield. His brother, Ward C. Pitfield, Jr., was Chairman of the family Investment Banking firm, Pitfield, MacKay, Ross, which later became Dominion Securities, now the Investment arm of the Royal Bank of Canada. Another brother was stockbroker Robert Hartland Pitfield, father of Robert H. Pitfield Jr His nephew, Ward Elcock is the former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and former Deputy Minister at the Department of National Defence.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Pitfield graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York at the age of 16. His SLU degree, in science, was followed by a degree in law from McGill University. He went to Ottawa to join the civil service in 1959 where he worked as an administrative assistant to Justice Minister E. Davie Fulton.

He subsequently obtained a postgraduate degree in public law, and held various positions in the civil service.