Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed two new senators on Thursday — Allister Surette for Nova Scotia and Nancy Karetak-Lindell for Nunavut.
Both appointees have previous Liberal ties and experience in electoral politics
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed two new senators on Thursday — Allister Surette for Nova Scotia and Nancy Karetak-Lindell for Nunavut.
Surette is a former Nova Scotia MLA and cabinet minister. He was also president and vice-chancellor of the Université Sainte-Anne, a French-language university in Church Point, N.S.
Karetak-Lindell was elected to Parliament in 1997 after playing a key role in negotiations to establish Nunavut as its own political riding two years before it achieved status as a territory. Before that, the riding was called Nunatsiaq.
She is also a member of the Order of Canada and a former president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada.
Both Karetak-Lindell and Surette will sit as independent senators and were appointed on the recommendation of an independent advisory board — but their appointments follow a recent trend of Trudeau choosing senators who have past Liberal ties.
Karetak-Lindell was a member of the Liberal Party when she was an MP and Surette was a member of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party as an MLA.
A CBC News analysis conducted earlier this summer found more than half of Trudeau’s most recent Senate appointments had Liberal connections.
With files from The Canadian Press
