Senator Appointed by Trudeau Joins Conservative Caucus

Senator David Richards listens as a reporter asks a question during a news conference in Ottawa on Nov. 8, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Senator David Adams Richards, a formerly non-affiliated New Brunswick senator, has joined the Conservative Senate Caucus.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Leo Housakos welcomed Richards to the Conservative caucus in a statement released on June 3.

“We are proud to welcome Senator Richards to a growing Conservative Senate Caucus—one that is home to diverse opinions and healthy debate, consensus and cooperation, grounded in common-sense principles, and committed to the important work of a robust and healthy opposition as we carry out our shared duty of serving Canadians,” Housakos said.

“I’m proud to join the Conservative caucus and be part of a strong team that stands up for Canadians,” Richards said in the statement released by Housakos.

Housakos said that since Richards was appointed, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to “core conservative values,” such as “respect for freedom of expression, individual responsibility, and a deep sense of duty to his province of New Brunswick.”

Richards was appointed as an independent senator for New Brunswick in 2017 by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau’s office noted in a statement at the time that Richards is an “acclaimed Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter and poet, whose commitment to the Miramichi River valley, New Brunswick, and Canada is reflected in his body of work.”

Richards is one of three writers to win the Governor General’s Literary Award in both fiction and non-fiction categories, and has received honorary doctorates from three New Brunswick universities as well as the Atlantic School of Theology.

He was a co-winner of the 2000 Giller Prize for his most popular novel, “Mercy Among the Children,” and has received numerous other awards for his work.

Richards also received a Doctor of Letters honorary degree from McGill University’s faculty of arts on June 2.

The senator had been critical of the Liberal government in the past, notably around Bill C-11. The piece of legislation passed in April 2023 amended the Broadcasting Act to allow the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to ensure that online streaming and social media platforms meet content standards set out by the federal government.

“The idea of any hierarchy deciding what a man or woman are allowed to write to fit a proscribed national agenda is a horrid thing,” Richards said in a Senate speech on the bill in January 2023.

“By this bill we have entered the very realms we have fought to depose over the last 70 years,” he added. “C-11 might be more subtle than the German Stasi or the Cultural Committee of the former Soviet Union, but never think it is not intertwined.”

Trudeau had removed all senators from the Liberal caucus in 2014 before becoming prime minister in 2015. He then only appointed independent senators, saying that party affiliation interfered with the Senate’s duty to provide proper checks and balances, and amplified the prime minister’s power.

There were 100 independent appointments made to the Senate following Trudeau’s advice. Days before he stepped down as prime minister, he filled the remaining vacancies with his appointees.

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.