OTTAWA — A senator-in-waiting from Alberta, a police chief from Ottawa, a former MP and a defeated Tory candidate were among seven new senators named to the Upper Chamber on Friday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Among those announced in a statement by Harper were: Betty Unger, who had won a Senate election in Alberta; Ottawa police Chief Vernon White; and former Newfoundland Tory MP Norman Doyle.
Also named was Jean-Guy Dagenais, a defeated Tory candidate in last year's federal election and a former peace officer with Quebec's provincial police force.
Rounding out the list were JoAnne Buth, president of the Canola Council of Canada, Ghislain Maltais, a former member of the Quebec legislature; and Dr. Asha Seth, a Toronto physician.
Since coming to power in early 2006, Harper has now named 46 Conservative senators, including renaming several failed Tory federal election candidates.
He reappointed Fabian Manning and Larry Smith to the red chamber in May after they resigned and failed to win a seat in the House of Commons in last May's federal election. Former Conservative cabinet minister Josee Verner was also appointed after voters punted her from the Commons.
Filling the seven vacancies will boost the Conservatives' majority in the upper chamber to a solid 61 of 105 seats.
The postings come with a base salary of $132,300.
The seven vacancies arose from five retirements and two resignations: the retirement of Alberta Liberal senator Tommy Banks; resignations of Liberal senators Sharon Carstairs from Manitoba and Francis Fox in Quebec; retirements of Conservative senator Vim Kochhar and Progressive Conservative Lowell Murray in Ontario; and retirements of Liberal senators Lucie Pepin and Bill Rompkey in Quebec and Newfoundland, respectively.
The Harper government has for years vowed to reform the upper chamber, but change has been slow.
The government's Senate Reform Act, which is still before the House of Commons, would limit new senators' terms to nine years and establish guidelines for provinces to voluntarily hold Senate nominee elections.
However, the act wouldn't be binding on the prime minister or Governor General when making appointments to the Senate.
The Tory reforms set out a process by which a prime minister might appoint senators who are selected through provincial or municipal elections. It's up to the provinces, however, to run the elections and to pay for them — something many provinces have said they won't do.
Alberta is the only province to ever hold Senate elections.
Quebec has threatened to fight the senate-reform legislation in court, while other premiers, such as Ontario's Dalton McGuinty and British Columbia's Christy Clark, have called for the Senate to be abolished (although Clark has also said she favours elections if abolition isn't an option).
Alberta Premier Alison Redford has promised to hold a new Senate election in conjunction with the provincial campaign expected in 2012, while New Brunswick's David Alward recently announced his government will introduce legislation to elect Senate nominees.
