More than half of recent Senate appointments have ties to Liberal Party

Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's promise to rid the Senate of partisanship and patronage, most of the senators appointed to the upper house over the past year have ties to the Liberals.

Since July 2023, Trudeau has nominated 12 senators, eight of whom — 66 per cent of the total — have donated money to the federal Liberals or have worked with the federal party or a provincial Liberal party.

That's a significant jump in the number of Senate appointees with partisan Liberal ties — up from about 30 per cent of all senators appointed between January 2019 and July 2023.

"I think it is a disturbing trend," said Emmett Macfarlane, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo who wrote a draft document that became the basis for the advisory committee on Senate appointments.

"The appointment of the occasional partisan or person with a partisan history is completely, I think, valid," he said. "What is troubling is to see a slew of partisan appointments, particularly those that match the government stripes. This actually goes against the whole spirit of the reform."

In 2014, as the Senate was mired in an expenses scandal, Trudeau expelled senators from the Liberal caucus.

As prime minister, he created an independent and nonpartisan advisory board for Senate appointments in 2016. Since then, he's named only senators recommended by the board. Trudeau has named more than 80 senators since taking office.

His recent appointments include:

• New Brunswick's Victor Boudreau, a longtime Liberal who served as a provincial cabinet minister and interim leader. He was also Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc's campaign manager in 2019.

• Mohammad Al Zaibak, an entrepreneur and businessman who has made over 150 donations to the Liberal Party of Canada totalling tens of thousands of dollars.

• Rodger Cuzner, a former Cape Breton Liberal MP who was first elected in 2000 and went on to serve as a parliamentary secretary in the Trudeau government until 2019.

• Joan Kingston, a registered nurse who was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly in New Brunswick from 1995 to 1999. She was also chief of staff in the Office of the Official Opposition when the provincial Liberals were in opposition in the early 2000s.

• Toni Varone, a Toronto businessman and philanthropist who has donated to the Liberal Party regularly since at least 2004. In the five years leading up to his appointment, he donated more than $14,500 to the federal party.

• John McNair, a New Brunswick lawyer who worked as a provincial Liberal chief of staff. He was also the executive director of the New Brunswick Liberal Association (provincial and federal). His grandfather, John B. McNair, was a Liberal premier of New Brunswick.

The other two recently appointed senators with ties to the Liberal Party are lawyer Réjean Aucoin and Olympian Marnie McBean, both of whom both made donations to the federal party.

Elections Canada records show that Aucoin made 11 donations to the Liberal Party of Canada over 18 years.

McBean made one donation to Liberal MP and fellow Olympian Adam van Koeverden. In a statement issued to CBC News, McBean said she has backed causes championed by Liberal and Conservative prime ministers and premiers and supports individuals and the work they do, rather than parties.

Conservative Sen. Denise Batters said the ties between the newly-appointed senators and the governing party prove that the appointment process is not truly independent.

"Frankly, this is much like a lot of things that have happened with the Trudeau government," Batters told CBC News.

"Justin Trudeau promised an independent Senate. But what has happened is actually the exact opposite of it. He's still trying to hide behind this veneer of independence."

Batters has long criticized Trudeau's Senate appointment process. She said the pro-Liberal tilt of Senate appointments has become more "blatant" in recent years — and accused the Liberals of trying to stack the Senate with like-minded people ahead of next year's federal election.

"And I think it's because they see the polls as we do, and they're worried they're going to be in the losing position in the next election. And so they want to make sure they have as many senators ... filling those seats as possible who are actually Liberals," she said.

No change to how nominations are made: PMO

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office, Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, said there has been no change to the prime minister's approach to choosing senators.

Potential senators must still apply through an independent and non-partisan body established in 2016 to provide advice to the prime minister on candidates for Senate appointments. The prime minister considers the names on the list provided by the board and makes a decision.

"It has also been noted by the Ethics Commissioner, making a legal donation to a political party does not disqualify someone from an appointment. That would be inappropriate as it would exclude Canadians for legally participating in our democracy," Vaillancourt said in a media statement.

She did not offer any explanation for the increase in the number of Senate appointees with ties to the Liberal Party over the past year.

Cuzner, who was appointed last October, described the application process as "fairly involved, fairly extensive." He said he received letters of support from three individuals, including one from a Conservative and one from someone in the NDP.

He said any increase in Liberal-aligned senators "hasn't really shown itself in the chamber" and he's been impressed by the calibre of his fellow senators.

"I thought it'd be a really neat experience and I could find a way to contribute," he said. "I'm there to try to help the folks back home in Nova Scotia, and the bigger picture too."

Cuzner suggested that if the Conservatives win the next election, leader Pierre Poilievre might revert back to the previous method of appointing senators and abolish the advisory board.

"I doubt very much that should Pierre Poilievre find some success in the next election, that he would feel obliged to follow any sort of advice put together by any committee," he said.

"He would go young and ardent in his selections. Young, ardent and conservative."

A spokesperson for Poilievre wouldn't say whether a Conservative government would keep the independent advisory committee. Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer had said he would abolish it if elected.

In a media statement, Scheer — now the Conservative House Leader — accused Trudeau of breaking a promise. 

"For nine years, Trudeau has said one thing to Canadians while doing everything else in his power to ram through his radical agenda that has caused hurt and misery across our country," he said.