Toni Varone is a business executive and Canadian Senator. He was appointed to the Senate on the advice of Justin Trudeau on December 20, 2023. He is president of Varone Group Inc., a family run group of companies involved in the hospitality, home building, development and property management sectors. [1] [2] He is the first Italian Canadian senator since Consiglio Di Nino retired in 2012. [3]
The Senate of Canada is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they compose the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The 31st Canadian Parliament was a briefly lived parliament in session from October 9 until December 14, 1979. The membership was set by the 1979 federal election on May 22, 1979, and it was dissolved after the minority government of Joe Clark failed to pass a Motion of Confidence on December 13, 1979. The dissolution of parliament led to the 1980 federal election. Lasting only 66 days from first sitting to dissolution, and only nine months from election to election, the 31st was the shortest parliament in Canadian history.
Serge Joyal is a Canadian politician who served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1974 to 1984 and subsequently in the Senate of Canada from 1997 to 2020.
Céline Hervieux-Payette is a former Canadian senator who served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada from 2007 to 2008, the first woman to hold this position. She was previously a Liberal member of Parliament from 1979 to 1984 and a cabinet minister in the government of Pierre Trudeau in the 1980s. She retired from the Senate on April 22, 2016, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Mary Sandra Lovelace Nicholas is a former Canadian senator representing New Brunswick. Sitting with the Progressive Senate Group, she was the first Indigenous woman appointed to the Senate. As an activist on behalf of First Nations women and children, she received international recognition in 1979 for bringing her case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In 1985 she succeeded in having Parliament revoke a discriminatory section of the Indian Act, which had caused women marrying non-Aboriginals to lose status and also deprived their children of status but did not treat men the same who married non-Aboriginal women.
David Osborn Braley was a Canadian businessman and politician who was the owner of three Canadian Football League (CFL) teams during his lifetime: the BC Lions, Toronto Argonauts, and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2010 as a Conservative, but resigned three years later stating no official reason. He was a member of the Order of Canada and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Scott Tannas is a Canadian senator and, since November 5, 2019, leader of the Canadian Senators Group, a parliamentary caucus.
David Mark Wells, ICD.D is a Canadian senator from Newfoundland and Labrador. He was appointed to the Senate on January 25, 2013 by Governor General David Johnston on the advice of Canada's 22nd prime minister, Stephen Harper. He is the former Chair of the Subcommittee on the Senate Estimates and the Senate’s Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight. Senator Wells is a strong proponent of accountability and transparency in the Senate.
The Canadian Senate expenses scandal, also known as Duffygate, was a political scandal concerning the expense claims of certain Canadian senators which began in late 2012. Senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb, and Pamela Wallin claimed travel and living allowance expenses from the Senate for which they were not eligible. Deloitte LLP was retained to provide the Senate with an independent examination of the expense claims. Duffy, Harb, and Wallin repaid ineligible amounts. Harb retired a few months into the scandal, and in November 2013, Brazeau, Duffy, and Wallin were suspended from the Senate without pay. Brazeau, Duffy, and Harb were criminally charged. On April 21, 2016, Duffy was acquitted on all charges. Charges against Harb were withdrawn and no charges were to be laid against Wallin. The scandal attracted much public attention, with as many as 73% of Canadians following it closely. Many said that the scandal impacted the 2015 Canadian general election.
Hassan Yussuff is a Canadian labour leader and politician. From 2014 to 2021, Yussuff served as president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the first visible minority person to hold the role. In 2021, Yussuff was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to serve as Canadian Senator from Ontario.
Raymonde Gagné is a Canadian politician and academic who has served as the speaker of the Senate of Canada since May 12, 2023. She was named to the Senate of Canada to represent Manitoba on March 18, 2016.
Sarabjit (Sabi) Singh Marwah is a former member of the Canadian Senate. He is a former vice chairman and chief operating officer of Scotiabank, retiring in 2014 after 35 years with the bank where he began his career as a financial analyst. He has served on the boards of the C.D. Howe Institute, the Toronto International Film Festival, Torstar Corporation, Cineplex Inc., George Weston Ltd., Telus Corp. and the Hospital for Sick Children. He is also a founding member of the Sikh Foundation of Canada.
Marc Gold is a Canadian law professor and politician who has served as Representative of the Government in the Senate since 2020. Gold has sat as the senator for Stadacona, Quebec since he was appointed on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016. He was a member of the Independent Senators Group (ISG) caucus from 2016 to 2020 but now sits as an Independent. Prior to his appointment as a senator, Gold taught law and was appointed associate dean at Osgoode Hall Law School.
The Independent Senators Group is a parliamentary group in the Senate of Canada. Established on March 10, 2016, the Independent Senators Group is committed to a non-partisan Senate and the modernization of the Upper House of Canada's Parliament. The Independent Senators Group is the largest parliamentary group in the Senate. Composed of independents not affiliated with any political caucus, members of the group work cooperatively but act independently.
Colin Deacon is a Canadian entrepreneur and politician from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada on June 15, 2018.
Paula Simons is a Canadian senator. She previously worked as a journalist and was a columnist for the Edmonton Journal in Edmonton, Alberta. She sits as a senator representing Alberta in the Senate of Canada, and is part of the Independent Senators Group caucus.
Stanley Paul Kutcher is a Canadian Senator and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada on 12 December 2018.
William Haskell is an American politician and a former member of the Connecticut State Senate, representing District 26 from 2019 to 2023. The district includes the towns of Redding, Ridgefield, Wilton, and parts of Bethel, Weston, Westport, and New Canaan. Haskell is a member of the Democratic Party, and was a member of the State Senate Democratic Caucus. When Haskell originally won election to the 26th District, he became the first Democrat to represent the district in over 50 years.
The Progressive Senate Group is a parliamentary group in the Senate of Canada. It was formed on November 14, 2019, out of the now-defunct Senate Liberal Caucus. It is currently led by Pierre Dalphond.