Alberta “senator-elect” Bert Brown will be given a chance before Easter to convince prime minister Jean ChrŽtien in person that he should be appointed to the Alberta Senate seat vacated March 31 by Tory Ron Ghitter.
Brown said in an interview he was called by an official in the prime minister’s office who promised an “audience” with ChrŽtien by April 20 and before any Senate appointment is made.
“I don’t read anything into it other than that I’ll be having an audience,” said the former rancher and long-time advocate of an elected Senate.
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In 1998, he won the most votes in a province-wide vote on who should take the next available Senate seat.
ChrŽtien ignored the vote, but now a seat has opened and Brown spent most of last week in Ottawa, arguing that the government owes it to Albertans to appoint him.
He said he is available for the job. He has sold his Kathyrn, Alta., ranch and in mid-March auctioned off his farm machinery.
He said he decided to quit farming after a friend died and his wife became nervous.
“My wife insisted she didn’t want to put my money in my coffin with me,” he chuckled.
“She wanted me to smell the roses.”
If he gets his way, those roses will be on Parliament Hill.
He told a news conference that if ChrŽtien appointed him, he would sit as the first Canadian Alliance senator.
And while he would follow the wishes of Albertans rather than the dictates of any party line, Brown said he would have no trouble promising ChrŽtien that if appointed, he would vote for the Liberal government’s Clarity Bill on the rules for Quebec separation.
Acting Canadian Alliance leader Deborah Grey told the news conference that Brown was in town to “ramp up the attention” on the issue of Senate reform and the 1998 Alberta Senate election.
“We just can’t think of one good reason why the prime minister would not put in senator-elect Bert Brown because he has been chosen by the people,” said Grey.
During his six years in office, ChrŽtien has usually used Senate appointments to reward political allies and to ensure the Liberal government’s agenda is supported by the Senate majority.
At a chance meeting between Brown and ChrŽtien at a meeting in Calgary in mid-March, the prime minister recognized him and said he had an “explanation” for why he had not adhered to the election result, which was organized under provincial legislation and not federal election rules.
It may be that “explanation” that ChrŽtien wants to deliver in person by April 20.
It will not be the first time Brown has had contact with the prime minister’s office over an election appointment.
Eleven years ago after he placed third in the first Alberta Senate election, Brown said an “emissary” for former prime minister Brian Mulroney approached him to see if he would consider the appointment.
Brown said he considered it and turned it down, suggesting that election winner Stan Waters be appointed.
Eventually, Mulroney made that appointment under Alberta pressure. Waters, the only Reform senator, died 11 months later.
Ghitter, an Alberta Conservative who retired voluntarily March 31, was given Water’s vacant seat.
