Browse "Senators"

Arthur Julien Tremblay, PC, OC, OQ, professor, educational reformer, senior public servant, senator, author (born 18 June 1917 in St-Bruno, QC; died 27 October 1996).

Cairine Reay Wilson (née Mackay), senator, diplomat, philanthropist (born 4 February 1885 in Montreal, QC; died 3 March 1962 in Ottawa, ON). In 1930, the year after the success of the Persons Case, Wilson was the first woman appointed to the Senate of Canada. She helped found and run political organizations that encouraged women and youth to get involved in politics. From the 1930s onwards, Wilson advocated for the admission of European refugees to Canada.

Calvin Woodrow Ruck, CM, senator, social worker, human rights activist, author (born 4 September 1925 in Sydney, NS; died 19 October 2004 in Ottawa, ON). Ruck took leading roles in the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, the NS Association of Social Workers, and the Black Cultural Society of Nova Scotia. He was the third Black Canadian appointed to the Senate.

Charlie Watt, Inuk leader (born 29 June 1944 in Fort Chimo [now Kuujjuaq], Québec). Watt founded the Northern Québec Inuit Association in 1972 and was a negotiator for the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), signed in 1975. He served in the Canadian Senate from 1984 to 2018. Since January 2018, he has served as president of Makivic Corporation in Nunavik, the Inuit homeland in northern Quebec.

Claude Castonguay, businessman, senator (b at Québec City 8 May 1929). Educated at Laval U (1948-50) and U of Manitoba (1950-51), Castonguay taught at Laval 1950-57 while working as an actuary at several Québec insurance companies. In 1962 he formed his own consulting firm.

Michel Cogger fell to earth last week. It has been a long, agonizing descent. The portly, peppery Tory senator and lawyer once helped run federal election campaigns, had the ear of prime minister Brian Mulroney, and the trust of legal clients like the shadowy Austrian businessman Walter Wolf.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on June 15, 1998

Daniel Christmas, community leader, businessman, activist, adviser, senator (born 10 September 1956 in Sydney, NS). Daniel Christmas helped to transform his home community of Membertou First Nation into one of the most prosperous First Nations in Canada (see also First Nations in Nova Scotia). In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed him as the first Mi’kmaw senator. Christmas served until 2023, when he retired voluntarily.

Donald H. Oliver, QC, CM, ONS, senator 1990–2013, lawyer, businessman (born 16 November 1938 in Wolfville, NS). Halifax lawyer Donald Oliver has been involved as a senior official in the Progressive Conservative Party since 1972. In 1990, he became the second Black Canadian and the first Black Canadian man to be appointed to the Senate of Canada. Oliver served as a senator until 2013. He is a Member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.

After his father died, Forsey's mother moved with him to Canada (Newfoundland had not yet joined Confederation). Forsey was raised in Ottawa in the home of his Quebec-born maternal grandfather, William Cochrane Bowles, a high official in the House of Commons.

Inside the high-flying life of Sen. Pamela Wallin—and how it all came crashing down in a frenzy of backstabbing and bitterness. In Maclean’s second major profile of a senator caught in scandal, Anne Kingston reports.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on September 23, 2013

Flordeliz (a.k.a. Gigi) Osler (née Sharma), FRCSC, senator, physician and educator (born 1968 in Winnipeg, MB). Dr. Osler is an Otolaryngology – Head and Neck surgeon (ENT) surgeon and has practiced in Winnipeg since 1998. She was the past president of the Canadian Medical Association, making her the first female surgeon and the first woman of colour to assume the role. Osler was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 2022, making her the second senator of Filipino descent and the first woman of Filipino heritage to sit in the Senate.

Florence Bayard Bird (née Rhein, pseudonym Anne Francis), CC, senator, journalist, broadcaster and author (born 15 January 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died 18 July 1998 in Ottawa, Ontario). Chair of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada from 1967 to 1970, Florence Bird made her name as a broadcast journalist for CBC/Radio-Canada, reporting news and producing documentaries on women’s working conditions and on conditions for women in Canada’s prisons.

George Isaac Smith, lawyer, politician, premier of NS (b at Stewiacke, NS 6 Apr 1909; d at Truro, NS 19 Dec 1982). He began his career as a lawyer and served with the army in WWII. He then became politically involved, helping to

Gérald-A. Beaudoin, professor of law, lawyer, senator (b at Montréal 15 Apr 1929). A leading expert on the Canadian CONSTITUTION and human rights, Beaudoin was educated at the Universities of Montréal, Ottawa and Toronto and did graduate work at several European universities.

Gerald Grattan McGeer, "Gerry," lawyer, politician, mayor of Vancouver 1935-36, 1947 (b at Winnipeg 6 Jan 1888; d at Vancouver 11 Aug 1947). He first distinguished himself as counsel for BC on freight-rate hearings in the 1920s which brought enduring financial benefits to BC.