Inside Politics

UPDATED: SenateWatch: And the winners are ...

by Kady O'Malley Posted: January 29, 2010 8:55 AM Last Updated: January 29, 2010 10:21 AM
senate-cbc-584ajd.jpg
(Kerry Wall/CBC)

Well, that was fast. No sooner had Orders of the Day gone up that the following notice arrived, courtesy of the Prime Minister's Office:

PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER NAMES FIVE OUTSTANDING CANADIANS TO SENATE 
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today filled five vacancies in the Senate. The appointments are another step toward implementing the Government's tackling-crime agenda and respecting the will of the democratically-elected House of Commons. 
 Appointed are Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu (QC), Bob Runciman (ON), Vim Kochhar (ON), Elizabeth (Beth) Marshall (NL) and Rose-May Poirier (NB). These appointments give the Government a plurality of seats in the Upper House. [...]   The appointments are effective immediately, with the exception of Rose-May Poirier's appointment, which is effective February 28, 2010.
 Huh. Not a Loyola or a Bernard in the bunch. I'll update this post with the details once we've got 'em, but feel free use the comment thread to gloat over your speculative prescience or grumble quietly over how the fix was in.

UPDATE: Here's the background release provided by PMO, which includes biographies of the five new senators. Also, via twitter, Colleague Poitras in New Brunswick explains why Poirier will be starting a bit later than the others -- she's a sitting MLA, remember, so once she heads to Ottawa, Premier Shawn Graham - a Liberal, it's worth noting - will have to call a byelection, which could be less than desireable given the fracas over the NB Hydro deal. 

Tags: blackberry jungle, senatewatch