Sen. Jacques Demers leaves Conservative caucus

Disappointed to have been benched during the last election campaign and bothered by the taunts he hears due to the senate expenses scandal, Sen. Jacques Demers resigned from the Conservative caucus on Thursday. The 71-year-old former coach of the Montreal Canadiens will now sit as an independent.

In a press briefing Thursday, Demers said he was saddened to see the reputation of the upper house take a beating in the wake of the expenses scandal. He said he sometimes heard jokes while on the golf course or at a restaurant, which he took to heart.

Abuse directed toward some of his colleagues started to bother him more than two years ago. When the spending scandals of senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau were disclosed openly, Demers was told he should “be thinking ” about his political future.

He ultimately chose to remain in office, out of loyalty to thenprime minister Stephen Harper, who appointed him in 2009. The straw that broke the camel’s back is that he was kept out of the Conservative campaign this summer. Even though he had given a boost to Conservative candidates in 2011.

“Suddenly, they no longer need me? That affected me. Because you just told me: ‘You’re part of the team for the first election’, but then in the second election, you (are not) part of the team.

“They tell me suddenly, ‘We do not want to see your face here because we do not need you anymore,’ ” Demers said. “Well, OK.”

Conservative Sen. Jean-Guy Dagenais confirmed that senators were not invited to the launch of the campaign in the Montreal riding of Mount Royal.

It was disappointing but not overly offensive, he said. “We were asked to be more discreet,” Dagenais said.

Dagenais and colleague Claude Carignan, however, respect Demers’s decision. “I am very pleased that he will continue to remain in the Senate. ... He seemed to have a harder time working inside a party,” Dagenais said.

Demers, who revealed he was functionally illiterate throughout his coaching career, said he believes that his independent position will enable him to further advance issues close to his heart, including helping literacy.