A ‘normal Canadian’ joins the Senate
After a career in education, Waterloo Region’s Marty Deacon gets ready for a new challenge
WATERLOO — Marty Deacon was buying pork chops at Dutchie’s Fresh Market in Waterloo last month when her phone rang. The caller asked her an unusual question — would she be ready to “have a call of significance on Monday?”
Deacon said yes. A few days later, she was in a parking lot in Thornbury, Ont., when her phone rang again. This time, it was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the line, asking her a question that would change her life: Was she ready to become a Canadian senator?
Deacon, the retired educator and advocate for amateur sport, didn’t really have to answer. She’d waited 16 months for this call, and after being chosen from a pool of thousands of applicants, wasn’t about to say no.
On Tuesday, Deacon was officially sworn in as a senator in a ceremony at Parliament Hill, becoming the first new senator appointed from Waterloo Region since the Second World War. She’s embarking on her new job with high hopes to represent this region and be a voice for all Canadians, with particular concern about Indigenous, LGBTQ and mental health issues.
“I’ve seen the full spectrum in my life, from the really successful to folks who are really struggling,” she said. “I always want to know, ‘How can we do better as a country?’ ”
After 34 years as a teacher, principal and school board administrator, education will certainly remain close to her heart. And so will amateur sport, after a decade working with young athletes and Canada’s Olympic movement. It was sport, after all, that gave Deacon hope as a 10year-old girl — finding an escape in badminton just as her family life was going through a difficult transition.
“Sports, in a lot of ways, was a saviour for me,” she said. “I owe a lot to the sport of badminton.”
In an interview at her Waterloo condo the week before her swearing in, the newly minted senator looked tanned and refreshed, excited to be part of a new generation of senators chosen through an independent process designed to move the Senate away from its old reputation for partisanship and patronage appointments.
Deacon’s loyalties, she says, aren’t to the Liberals or Trudeau or anyone else from the traditional halls of power. She’s not part of the “elite” either, a well-connected lawyer or former MP — she spent her career in the classroom, in gymnasiums and working with youth before retiring in 2016.
She says her job will be to hold true to her values.
“I’m a normal Canadian,” said Deacon, looking the part in faded jeans and a navy knit sweater, sipping coffee from a mug emblazoned with a plaid maple leaf. “I think if people can see themselves reflected in the Senate, it can help renew their faith in the Senate … and I think people can identify with me.”
She knows becoming a senator will mean significant changes for her family, too. For about four days a week, she’ll live in Ottawa, commuting home on weekends to be with her husband Bruce, also a retired principal. Their two adult daughters, Kristine and Kailee, were among a crowd of supporters in Ottawa when she took her oath Tuesday.
“It’s unknown, uncharted waters for my family and I. But I’ll need them to keep me accountable to who I am, through what will be a challenging time,” she said. “At this point, it’s still absolutely overwhelming. I think it’ll be a year before I’m really settled in.”
Deacon admits she still isn’t used to be being called “Senator Deacon.” She’s an outgoing, down to earth person by nature, more at home on the badminton court, kayaking or hiking with friends than perhaps surrounded by the pomp and circumstance of the Senate chambers.
“To me, I’m still Marty,” she said. “So it feels very strange. I’m not there yet, but this is an incredible honour.”
She’s already picked out an office in the East Block of Parliament, with a view of the centennial flame and the demonstrations that occasionally gather on the front lawn. The past few weeks have been a crash-course in the business of being a senator, getting up to speed on committee work and files ranging from pending cannabis legalization to bills intended to protect Canada’s grain and steel industries.
Deacon has also joined the Independent Senators Group, part of a modernization movement bringing non-partisan oversight to federal legislation.
“It’s going to be demanding, there’s no question about that,” she said.
“But if you’re going to challenge a bill, or you’re going to speak to a Canadian issue, you need to be really prepared.”
Senators are paid an annual salary of $147,700.
Deacon says she didn’t expect she’d ever make it through the long process to become a senator. She applied back in 2016 when she was looking for a new way to “serve my country.” After months of no response, she forgot all about it, thinking she wasn’t being considered.
“When I didn’t hear anything, I just thought ‘Oh well,’ ” she said.
Last fall, her application started getting serious consideration by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments that vets senate hopefuls. She went through extensive background checks, and her references were probed about her character and values. As she advanced through each step, inching her way closer to becoming a senator, she had to keep all of it confidential as she waited for a final decision.
It all became very real after that phone call from the prime minister. After that, everything changed.
“I’m at an age when most people start winding down into retirement. But I’m just ramping up,” she said. “There’s an unknown to this, but I’ve very excited about it.”