OTTAWA - Alberta's Bert Brown was sworn in as a senator Tuesday, nine years after he won a provincial Senate nomination election.
Brown, a Calgary development consultant, also won a second provincial Senate election in 2004.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Brown's appointment last spring, after veteran Liberal Senator Daniel Hays announced he would retire at the end of June.
"Bert has been a passionate advocate for democratization of the Senate for more than 20 years,'' Harper said as Brown took the oath of office.
"I can think of no one more deserving of a seat in our upper house. As the only sitting senator endorsed by voters, he will be a powerful voice for reform from the inside.''
But NDP's Charlie Angus questioned the prime minister's commitment to an elected upper chamber, noting that Harper had appointed Michael Fortier to the Senate upon coming to power and appointed him to the cabinet.
"It makes for a nice photo-op, but the fact is this is another Stephen Harper appointment,'' the Angus said. "He can't say that a makeshift referendum in Alberta constitutes any kind of serious electoral reform.''
Harper wants to reform the Senate by having members elected to fixed terms. Senators now are appointed by the prime minister and can sit until age 75.
The prime minister said he remains committed to changing the Senate, despite having two reform bills bottled up in the upper chamber in the last session. He used Brown's appointment as an opportunity for some politicking:
"The swearing-in of Senator Brown today reflects our government's conviction that Canadians must have a direct say in who will represent them in the red chamber,'' he said.
"If the Liberal majority in the Senate persist in obstructing reform, they will fade ever further into irrelevance and, eventually, oblivion.''
Brown is the second elected Albertan named to the Senate.
Alberta's first Senate nomination election in 1989 was won by Stan Waters, a businessman, Second World War veteran and retired general.
He was appointed to the upper house by then-prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1990, but died in office just over a year later.
