Michael Fortier, the new Conservative cabinet minister who had to be appointed to the Senate because he didn't run in the Jan. 23 election, indicated some lingering doubt Tuesday about accepting his new job.

A day after his surprise appointment as minister of public works and government services in Ottawa, Fortier told reporters: "I didn't run in the election because I didn't want to run in the election."

Michael Fortier in Ottawa Tuesday.
Michael Fortier in Ottawa Tuesday.

He had a "great career" in Montreal and five young children, he said, but Conservative Leader and prime minister-designate Stephen Harper called, and he decided to take the job after talking to his wife.

"This isn't what my family was looking forward to," he said. "Even today, it's not easy."

Fortier is a party organizer who had worked on Harper's 2004 campaign for the leadership of the Conservative party and went on to co-chair the party's national campaigns in 2004 and 2006. Harper has said he took the unusual action of appointing a non-elected person to cabinet in order to have a Montreal representative at the cabinet table.

No Conservative candidates from Montreal ridings were elected on Jan. 23, although 10 Conservatives won seats throughout the province of Quebec.

Asked how he was received by former Reform members in the Conservative ranks, who have long opposed appointing senators, Fortier said "people [in the caucus] gave me the impression they're happy to see me."

He said he will resign his Senate seat before the next federal election, as Harper promised Monday. If the Conservatives succeed in reforming the Senate so that members are elected, Fortier added, "I will think about running at that time."

Senators once served in the unelected Upper Chamber until death, but reforms introduced in 1965 decreed that they must retire at age 75.

"I'm not staying till I'm 75," Fortier said.