Trudeau Names 3 New Senators: Olympian, Activist, and Businessman

The Senate of Canada building and Senate Chamber are pictured in Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Three new senators have been appointed to fill vacancies in the Senate.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon appointed Olympian and author Marnie McBean, President and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation Paulette Senior, and developer Toni Varone to the Senate on Dec. 20.

“With a wealth of knowledge and experience, Marnie McBean, Paulette Senior, and Toni Varone will be important voices for their communities as Parliament’s newest independent senators,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a Dec. 20 statement.

Mr. Varone, who is also a director on the board of the Crown corporation Canada Lands Company, is a long-time Liberal donor and a former organizer with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2013 leadership campaign.

Mr. Varone and his construction company Varone Group Inc. of North York, Ont., have donated $32,239 to the Liberal Party including Trudeau’s leadership campaign, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

Mr. Varone testified at 2016 hearings of the Commons Transport Committee that he was “active in the business of real property development.” Mr. Varone was testifying as past chair of Toronto’s Business Development Committee of Downsview Park.

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Mr. Varone is the prime minister’s 78th appointment to the Senate. A majority of Trudeau appointees sit as “independents” who take direction from cabinet. The Liberal Senate caucus disbanded in name in 2020.

“For a decade, Canadians saw how the Conservatives mistreated the institution that was the Senate, torqued it, used it for their own particular gain, pushed partisanship, pushed patronage in the Senate,” Mr. Trudeau told the House of Commons back in 2019. “The fact is we moved forward on removing partisanship and patronage from the Senate. It is now a more independent body of truly sober second thought.”

In 2014, Mr. Trudeau expelled all Liberal senators from the Liberal caucus, claiming there was no longer any such thing as a Liberal senator.

“The only way to be part of the Liberal caucus is to be put there by the people of Canada,” Mr. Trudeau said at the time, promising as Prime Minister he would “end the partisan and patronage-based nature of the Senate.”

“The Senate needs real change,” said Mr. Trudeau, promising reforms aimed at “removing partisanship and patronage from that place.”

Cabinet’s representative in the Senate in 2019 described Trudeau appointees as “independent,” “remarkable” and not “a rubber stamp.” However, records indicate Mr. Trudeau’s appointees include senators who have voted for cabinet bills 100 percent of the time.

One Liberal appointee, “independent” Senator Ratna Omidvar in 2018 said she could not imagine voting against a Liberal bill. “I believe we should only vote down legislation that is egregious in nature,” said Mr. Omidvar.

“I have notionally tried to imagine a situation where I would say no,” said Mr. Omidvar. “Because I’m a practical person and I think in the particular rather than the abstract, I think if legislation to make beer free for Canadians would come before us I would probably say no,” she added.