Senate process angers Alberta
OTTAWA • Michele Audette, one of the commissioners for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, is among the five newest members of the Senate.
Audette was named as a senator for Quebec as part of a raft of appointments made public by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The announcement Thursday angered Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who had asked the prime minister to hold off until after his province elected its own choice. Instead Justin Trudeau named Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen, who planned to step down this year after three terms in office.
The appointment of Sorensen to represent Alberta runs headlong into the province’s system of holding elections for Senate nominees that are then presented to the prime minister to consider.
Kenney said he told Trudeau during a July 7 meeting in Calgary that the province would soon be holding the election and the legislature hoped that the prime minister would hold off filling Senate vacancies until after the vote.
Kenney’s statement blasted Trudeau for appointing a “hand-picked representative” for Alberta without waiting for the provincial vote.
“The prime minister’s decision shows contempt for democratic decision-making, and for Alberta voters in particular,” Kenney said.
In addition to Sorensen and Audette, three others were named to the Senate: Clément Gignac, chief economist at ia Financial Group who once served as a Quebec cabinet minister under former premier Jean Charest; David Arnot, the chief commissioner of Saskatchewan’s Human Rights Commission and a former federal treaty commissioner for the province; and Amina Gerba, a Cameroonian Canadian entrepreneur whose work has fostered greater business ties between North America and Africa.
Trudeau’s office says all will sit as independents in the upper chamber.
In a statement, Trudeau says the combined experiences and perspectives the news senators bring to the job should strengthen the Senate and help shape the country’s future.
With the appointments, Trudeau now counts 60 senators that have been named on his advice and passing three prime ministers on the appointments list: Louis St-laurent, Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper.
The appointments are also the first approved by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who was installed as viceregal on Monday.
Constitutionally, the Governor General appoints individuals to the Senate, but by convention the appointments are made on the advice of the prime minister.
Trudeau has used an arm’s-length advisory board that vets applicants and recommends short lists of potential Senate nominees, which the Liberals say creates an independent, meritbased selection process.