PM names new senators, filling all Senate’s seats

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed four new senators — including a failed Liberal candidate — filling every seat in the upper chamber.

The Senate has a full complement of 105 senators, the first time there hasn’t been a vacancy in about eight years.

Trudeau has appointed 49 senators since becoming prime minister and will have the chance to appoint more in 2019.

Five Conservative appointees are scheduled to hit the mandatory retirement age of 75 by this time next year, according to the Senate’s website, including three before next October’s federal election.

Margaret Dawn Anderson will fill the Northwest Territories seat in the Senate. An Inuvialuk, she has been a public servant with the territory for more than 20 years, playing a role in Inuvialuit self-government negotiations.

Former Yukon Liberal premier Pat Duncan helped sign landclaims agreements with First Nations during her time in office and the transfer of power from the federal government to the territory. She’ll take Yukon’s single Senate seat.

Trudeau is appointing Stanley Kutcher to an open seat in Nova Scotia. A professor at Dalhousie University and former federal Liberal candidate in Halifax, Kutcher is an expert on adolescent mental health and has been involved in mental-health work in more than 20 countries.

Rosemary Moodie will fill a vacancy in Ontario. She has been a pediatric physician and teacher at SickKids hospital in Toronto, receiving awards for her work.