Paul Stephen Paquet is a nationally syndicated trivia columnist and a trivia writer, based in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. In December 2008, he took over the Trivia Bits column from Stanley Newman

Stanley Newman

Stanley Newman is a U.S. puzzle creator, editor, and publisher. Newman has been the editor of the Newsday Sunday crossword puzzle since 1988 and the editor of the Newsday daily crossword puzzle since 1992...

. It runs in 14 newspapers throughout the United States. In addition, he has written for Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...

, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader

Uncle John's Bathroom Readers are a series of books containing trivia and short essays on miscellaneous topics, ostensibly for reading in the bathroom. The books are credited to the Bathroom Readers' Institute, though Uncle John is a real person, and are published by Portable Press, an imprint of...

, and many others.

In 2007, Paquet won the North American leg of the World Quizzing Championship

World Quizzing Championship

The World Quizzing Championship is an individual quiz contest organised by the International Quizzing Association...

s. In 2008, he finished in second place. Paquet has also developed trivia questions for competitions such as the Transatlantic quiz.

In Ottawa, Paquet provides the questions for World Trivia Night

World Trivia Night

World Trivia Night is North America's largest live trivia contest, held annually in Ottawa, Ontario since 1993. Originally organized by the Kiwanis Club of Orleans , the event is now organized by the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa-Carleton, which uses it...

, the world’s largest non-radio annual trivia event. A team he coached at Lisgar Collegiate also won the Ottawa championship for Reach for the Top

Reach for the Top

Reach for the Top is a Canadian game show in which teams of high school students participate in local, provincial and eventually national trivia tournaments...

, a Canadian version of Quiz Bowl. Paquet also runs the Ottawa Trivia League, which has been featured in a mini-documentary on TVOntario

TVOntario

TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...

. He has also hosted the game "Smartypants" at various Game Show Congress

Game Show Congress

Game Show Congress is a meeting of industry professionals, former contestants and fans of television game shows. It was first held in 2002 and will hold its eighth conference in 2011.-GSC 1:...

events beginning in 2005