Prime minister unveils 2 Senate appointments for Alberta, one with $80K in Liberal donations
CBC
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced two Senate appointments for Alberta.
In a news release on Saturday, the Prime Minister's Office said Governor General Mary Simon has appointed Daryl Fridhandler and Kristopher Wells to the Red Chamber, as the Senate is sometimes called.
According to biographies accompanying the announcement, "Fridhandler is a corporate lawyer, arbitrator, mediator, and businessman with over 40 years of legal experience."
"[I'm] gobsmacked, excited, delighted, bursting," Fridhandler said in an interview with CBC News, when asked how he felt about his appointment.
"I hope that I can be a bridge of good discourse between Alberta and the central government, an ambassador of the Senate to Alberta."
Fridhandler was called to the Alberta bar in 1984 and is on the board of directors of Enmax, an electricity provider.
He said he hopes he can be an ambassador and educator about federalism.
Fridhandler has been an active supporter of the federal Liberal Party during his career, serving as the party's election co-chair in Alberta between 2004 and 2009, according to his biography page on the website of Calgary law firm Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, where he has been a partner since 1990.
According to Elections Canada's publicly available political contributions database, Fridhandler has made nearly $80,000 in monetary contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada from 2004 to 2023. The records indicate he donated $1,200 to Trudeau's 2013 leadership campaign.
In a statement to CBC News, Fridhandler said while he generally gives the maximum contribution permitted by law to the federal Liberals, he has also donated to the federal Green Party — of which he says leader Elizabeth May is a former law school classmate.
Provincially, he said he has given to the Liberal Party, Alberta Party, Progressive Conservative Party and New Democratic Party in Alberta.
"I also volunteer my time to parties and candidates, as well as many other good causes in my community," Fridhandler said.
Kristopher Wells's biography describes him as "an educator and a champion for the 2SLGBTQ+ community who has used research and advocacy to help advance diversity, equity, and human rights in Alberta and across the country."
He is the editor-in-chief of Journal of LGBT Youth, which is the "world's leading research publication on 2SLGBTQ+ youth," according to his biography on the website for MacEwan University in Edmonton, where Wells is an associate professor.
More than five kilometres of the Gardiner Expressway suffer from severe congestion that doubles travel times in Toronto during rush hour periods.
A candidate for leadership of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives says there are books describing bestiality and incest in school libraries.
The Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (SCA) says it is working to ensure women in the province have access to breast cancer screening and biopsies in as timely a manner as possible, but some patients say the system isn't working fast enough.
The City of Edmonton is developing a wildfire strategy to mitigate risks within the municipality and help neighbouring regions, the city's emergency advisory committee heard Wednesday.
About 20 workers, students and local MPP candidates gathered outside Hamilton's Mohawk College Wednesday — where a fifth of full-time jobs have been cut since December — to call on the province to better fund post-secondary education.
In a busy race to Queen's Park, nine candidates are vying for the Sarnia—Lambton seat — a riding that's been conservative for nearly 20 years.
There's just over a year left in the Canada-Alberta child-care agreement and it's shaping up to be a rocky one for some parents, who — for this first time in the history of the agreement — will see their fees increase as a new phase of the program rolls out.
B.C. MLA Adrian Dix says he gets texts, emails, and even stopped at his local Safeway. He says people urge him to cut off power or even water to the U.S.
B.C. cities, in general, would be among the least vulnerable in Canada if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on tariff threats, according to new data from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Here's where and when you can vote in advance polls in Waterloo region, Guelph and Wellington County
Voting day is Feb. 27 in the Ontario election, but people can cast their ballots this week in advance polls.
Staff with Summerside Electric say they're not getting many updates from Maritime Electric after a failure at the utility's Sherbrooke substation over a week ago caused strain on the city's electrical grid.
The N.W.T.'s public utilities board has ordered the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) to start paying Naka Power $48,500 per month to use a transmission line in the Hay River area, starting March 1.
Ideologically motivated violent extremist groups are using antisemitism in a bid to recruit followers and inspire violence, according to a report from Canada's spy agency.