Carney may name more Conservative senators to beef up ranks, says Liberal Senate representative

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Carney’s Senate changes are so far receiving mixed reviews from current senators. Those with political backgrounds say they are glad to see the government won’t exclude people like them from appointments, while the ones appointed under the Trudeau process fear that the new way of doing things will cloud the independence of their chamber.

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Leo Housakos, leader of the Opposition in the Senate, said in his view Carney has opted for a “balanced” approach in opening up partisan appointments.

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“I do welcome the fact that they are encouraging senators to be themselves and express themselves politically if they choose, and less politically if they choose, and completely independent if they choose,” he said.

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“That has always been the tradition of the Senate.”

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But Rosa Galvez, one of the first senators to be appointed in the Trudeau era, said there was a reason why the prior Liberal government made those changes in the first place. She pointed to public frustration about the Senate being too partisan and prone to scandal.

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“I don’t know if our memory is short, but we should remember why this reform was in place from the beginning,” she said.

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Galvez said she was not happy to see Carney announce his reform without consulting the public first.

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“People must have an idea of what they want in the Senate. But I am completely sure that what they don’t want is to have an extension of the other House,” she said.

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“The competition, the partisanship, the politics — we have already a chamber that does that.”

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Paula Simons, an Independent senator from Alberta appointed under the Trudeau model, said she was “a little perplexed” by the government’s framing that the Senate did not have enough people with political backgrounds.

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“There was never a ban on people with partisan affiliations being appointed to the Senate,” she said.

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Indeed, many senators appointed under Trudeau had a partisan past. That includes Moreau, who said he was briefly involved with the Progressive Conservatives in the 1980s but subsequently made his political career in the Liberal Party of Quebec. Rodger Cuzner, now a senator for Nova Scotia, served as a Liberal MP for nearly two decades; and senator from Alberta, Daryl Fridhandler, was a longtime federal Liberal fundraiser.

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Cuzner said he is comforted by the fact that the government will not disqualify candidates because they might have a history with the Liberal Party of Canada, while at the same time Carney is not “just going to go out and fill (the Senate) with former Liberals.”

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Housakos said he is “pleased” that the government is respecting the role of the official Opposition and the large percentage of Canadians who did not vote for the Liberals.

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Simons said that when she first joined the Senate in 2018, the Conservatives were still the largest group in the chamber and “they did not make it easy” on the new senators.

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“If you had told me in 2018 that one day a Liberal prime minister would start appointing more Conservatives, I would have been shocked, because we were having a really hard time being outnumbered by Conservative senators,” she said.

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Simons said it is “a move that shows a lot of confidence by the government” to be able to nominate senators who could eventually oppose their legislation.

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“You don’t do that unless you’re feeling pretty certain of yourself,” she said. “So, I guess it’s a gesture of noblesse oblige.”

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It remains to be seen how long the graciousness will last, she added.

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“I mean, one day a future Liberal prime minister may look back and say, ‘You did what!?’”

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National Post
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