Duffy, Wallin, Greene Among 18 New Tory Senators

With Christmas just days away, Stephen Harper stands accused of stuffing his senate stocking with a few personal favourites.

Former broadcasters Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, Olympian Nancy Greene and party stalwart Irving Gerstein are among the 18 Conservatives headed to the senate in Harper’s biggest volley of patronage since he became prime minister.

Senate seats are perhaps the most highly-coveted posts and Harper and his ministers were undoubtedly inundated with party members seeking a favour.

Appointees receive a $134,000 annual salary indexed to inflation until they retire or reach age 75. There’s also a very comfortable pension.

Many of the other appointments made Monday went to well-connected Conservative partisans including Suzanne Duplessis and defeated Newfoundland MP Fabian Manning.

The P.M.’s timing, just before Christmas when most aren’t thinking politics, suggests the government isn’t anxious to showcase the appointments.

But opposition parties are certainly paying attention, and some have questioned whether the leader has the legitimacy for a patronage spree, particularly following the near and still-pending defeat of his minority government.

Harper himself has expressed little enthusiasm about having to stack the senate, a move seen by some as a white flag of surrender on his dream of reforming the chamber.

Previously, Harper had appointed only two senators – Alberta’s Bert Brown and Michael Fortier.

His initial hope was to only appoint senators who won elections, and shortly after earning power in 2006 he introduced a Senate election bill and another limiting senators to eight-year terms.

But his reforms ran into a brick wall in the minority Parliament and in a number of provincial legislatures – particularly in Quebec and Ontario. Many insisted no changes could be made without a formal constitutional amendment approved by at least seven provinces.

With that the vacancies mounted, as did Harper’s hope the provinces would designate their own Senate election processes. But to date only Alberta and Saskatchewan have.

The last straw was the threat by the three opposition parties to defeat the Tories in the Commons and replace them with a Liberal-NDP coalition government, propped up by the Bloc Quebecois.

Liberal-affiliated senators had occupied 58 of the seats, while 20 were held by Conservatives.

Monday’s other appointees are lawyer Fred Dickson (N.S.), Stephen Greene, former deputy chief of staff to N.S. Premier Rodney MacDonald (N.S.), N.S. businessman Michael L. MacDonald (N.S.), New Brunswick MLA and cabinet minister Percy Mockler (N.B.), lawyer John D. Wallace (N.B.), national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Patrick Brazeau (Que.), Director of Via Rail Canada Leo Housakos (Que.), former Quebec MNA Michel Rivard (Que.), Nicole Eaton, member of the Eaton family (Ont.), c o-founder of the Corean Canadian Coactive society Yonah Martin (B.C.), provincial cabinet minister Richard Neufeld (B.C.) and former Yukon MLA Hector Daniel Lang (Yukon).

List of current senators

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