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New Brunswick Sen. John Wallace retiring after eight years in upper chamber

Dec 13, 2016 | 1:30 PM

OTTAWA — A one-time Conservative senator from New Brunswick says he has served long enough in the Senate and is ready to step down now — several years before his mandatory retirement date.

Now-independent Sen. John Wallace’s decision marks the first time a senator appointed by former prime minister Stephen Harper has stuck with the eight-year term limit the Conservatives unsuccessfully pushed as part of a broader package of reforms to the upper chamber.

The mandatory retirement age for senators is 75, which Wallace wasn’t set to hit until 2024.

Wallace was part of a group of 18 senators Harper appointed in early 2008, each of whom backed the Conservatives’ Senate reform agenda, including term limits. Wallace said the government of the day never asked him to commit to retiring after eight years, but he personally thought it was enough time for him to serve in the Senate.

“I’m following through with what my intention and expectation was in 2009,” Wallace said in an interview.

“I’ve had eight years. It has been very interesting and it’s time to pass the baton on to someone else from New Brunswick.”

He left the Conservatives one year ago over what he called “irreconcilable differences” with the party’s leadership over the “roles, responsibilities and independence of Conservative senators,” including partisan interference in the Senate’s traditional role as “a chamber of sober second thought.”

Wallace said he believes the Senate will once again meet that traditional role because independent senators are currently the largest group in the upper chamber. Such a bloc of senators not affiliated with any party should help remove excessive partisanship from the review of legislation and approval of bills, he said. 

At the height of the Mike Duffy scandal, Wallace wrote a note outlining issues with the Senate’s spending rules around housing. He was also one of the few Conservative senators who opposed the Senate’s decision to suspend Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau without pay.

A judge later acquitted Duffy on 31 criminal charges stemming from his questionable expenses.

After the acquittal, Wallace unsuccessfully lobbied the Senate to compensate Duffy for wages lost during the suspension.

The Canadian Press