Local politics Westgaard-Halle became active in politics at the upper secondary school, and was a city council candidate for the first time in 1999. She led Drammen European Youth from 2001 to 2003, Buskerud
Young Conservatives from 2002 to 2004 and the Moderate group in the Student Parliament at the University of Oslo from 2005 to 2007. She also sat in the leadership of the student parliament. She sat for 10 years as a representative in
Drammen city council and as a member of the chairmanship and school committee, and in
Buskerud county council where she was a member of the main committee for education and the county committee. She was for several years a member of Drammen Conservative's main board and the board of Buskerud Conservatives. Locally she has been a member of
Drammen city council and Buskerud
county council, as well as
Larvik municipal council and Vestfold county council . She has been a member of several Executive Boards, amongst them, the Executive Boards of Buskerud Hospital, and the executive board of the
University of Oslo.
Parliament She is a member of the
Storting, the Norwegian parliament, since 2017, representing
Vestfold. She also represented
Buskerud as a deputy member from 2005 to 2009. In April 2024, she announced that she wouldn't seek re-election at the
2025 election. On 9 April 2021, marking 81 years since the
German occupation of Norway, Westgaard-Halle supported minister of culture
Abid Raja's criticism of
Carl Bildt's claiming the Swedish defence forces were stronger than those of Norway and Denmark. She stated Sweden looked away and let "Hitler invade Norway", further stating that she hopes that "this is not the way Sweden remembers the most horrible day in Norwegian history". She was supported by
Progress Party member of parliament
Erlend Wiborg, who said that "I think
Margaret Thatcher summarised your participation in the war pretty well". In January 2022, she expressed criticism against the state broadcaster
NRK after they listed fewer positions previously held by Vice Governor of the Norwegian Central Bank
Ida Wolden Bache compared to NATO Secretary-General
Jens Stoltenberg. ==References==