My only comment is hey a sentor should you live in that province. Not just have land there. But that would be reform.. and that would be not good. It is strange that the PM is are form. But when it comes to reform he does not want to it when he is the guy in power.
PM appoints Wallin to vacant Senate seat
Former Wadena resident honoured
By Cassandra Kyle, The StarPhoenix, Murray Mandryk, Saskatchewan News Network filesDecember 23, 2008 9:01 AMBe the first to post a comment
A former Saskatchewan resident appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper says she's thrilled and honoured to be offered the job.
Wadena-raised Pamela Wallin, a former journalist and Consul General of Canada in New York, was one of 18 Canadians named to the post by Harper on Monday, bringing the total number of Conservative senators in Ottawa to 38.
Speaking from her parents' home in Wadena, Wallin said she's ready to bring Saskatchewan issues into the national spotlight.
"I'm honoured. I'm just absolutely fundamentally honoured to be able to do this and represent a place and a people that I love," Wallin said.
Harper called 10 days ago with the offer, she said.
This is not the first time the prime minister has appointed Wallin -- a recipient of the Order of Canada -- to a government role. In 2007, Harper asked her to sit on the special Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan, which she accepted.
Now that the Senate appointments have been announced, Wallin said both she and the prime minister see eye-to-eye on Senate reform -- a movement to make the Senate more democratic and accountable.
"He's very frank and he is a big believer in Senate reform, as am I," Wallin said of Harper.
"I covered this as an issue for many years of my life and I do think that the role of the Senate is important but I do think it needs to be reformed.
"He wanted to, I think, reassure himself that those were my values and that I cared about that. I said I did, and I mean that."
In addition to speaking up for Saskatchewan and moving forward with Senate reform, Wallin said she will focus her energy on economic issues.
Under prime minister Jean Chretien, Wallin was appointed to the four-year consul general term. The newly appointed senator, who has been working as a consultant to a Rockefeller think-tank on Canada-US relations, says the economy and trade with the United States should remain a top government issue.
Wallin is unsure if she'll have to resign from her consulting job.
"I certainly won't stop being involved in discussions around that issue," she said. "In a country where 87 per cent of our trade is with the Americans, we have to understand their politics and their economics as well as we understand our own."
Wallin, who lives in Toronto, said her new post won't require her to step down from the numerous boards she sits on, which include CTVglobemedia, Oilsands Quest and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Time constraints, however, may cause her to adjust some of her board roles.
Justice Minister Don Morgan said he believes most Saskatchewan people will be delighted by Pamela Wallin's appointment, although he acknowledged it might be a temporary step backward in the Senate election process.
"I wouldn't use the term disappointed (at not electing the next Saskatchewan senator)," Morgan said in an telephone interview. "We want to go ahead with it, although today might be a step back."
Morgan noted Wallin has already said she would be willing to step down to accommodate a Saskatchewan Senate election race and sees no reason why she would go back on that commitment.
Morgan said his government intends to proceed with the Senate election legislation he introduced in the fall sitting and added he believes it could timed with the 2011 provincial election. If so, Wallin could run as the incumbent senator -- something Morgan anticipates that she will do.
Morgan praised Wallin's ability to communicate and added a lot of people don't realize the superior job she did as counsel general in New York or the importance of the role.
Opposition leader Lorne Calvert also praised Wallin for her good work in New York and added Saskatchewan people have "bona fide pride in Pamela Wallin's career."
However, Calvert said there is some disappointment some of the appointments, including Nancy Greene and Mike Duffy, who have reputations as politically independent people, would accept appointments in a round of Senate appointments that will be seen as tainted with politics.
"The credibility of the Senate takes a hit," Calvert said. The NDP leader also had harsh words for Harper for not maintaining his principles by allowing elections to take place.
Calvert added Harper and Premier Brad Wall will have a hard time explaining the rationale of these appointments.
But Morgan argued Saskatchewan voters will embrace Wallin's appointment and said Harper deserves credit for appointing non-partisan people, something he has also done in some of his Court of Queen's Bench appointments in the province.
Meanwhile, Wallin said she hopes Saskatchewan's growing economic role will lead to greater inclusion in national decisions.
"I think that the reality of our economics and our resource base and all of those things speak for themselves, but we also need to be part of the discussions that go on about how national problems are solved and dealt with," she said.
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