New Manitoban in Senate

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This article was published 07/01/2012 (5265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba’s newest senator is an agricultural expert who was raised in Winnipeg’s West End.

JoAnne Buth is one of seven people Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed to the Senate Friday. She fills the vacancy left by Liberal Sharon Carstairs when she retired in October.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Buth Friday, shortly after the news became public. “I think this is a tremendous opportunity.”

She said she was approached by the Prime Minister’s Office in December about the possibility, and after an “exploration,” both the PMO and Buth decided she was a good fit for the job.

“It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” she said.

Buth is currently the president of the Canola Council of Canada, a position she has held since 2007. Prior to that she was the council’s vice-president. She previously worked as a manager and weed-management specialist at the soils and crops branch of Manitoba’s Agriculture Department.

“I’m really hoping I can bring my expertise in agriculture to the Senate.”

She was born in British Columbia but grew up in Winnipeg’s West End, where she attended Gordon Bell High School.

She has a bachelor of science in biology from the University of Winnipeg and a master of science in entomology from the University of Manitoba.

Buth said she is not a member of any political party, nor does she have any affiliation with any party. She said several years ago she briefly became a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba to support a friend who was seeking a nomination.

She will, however, sit as a Conservative, and has agreed to support the government’s plan to reform the Senate, including term limits for senators and having elections for Senate seats held in each province.

Such an election was behind one of the seven appointments Friday. Betty Unger, from Alberta, won a Senate election in that province in 2004.

The Manitoba government held an all-party committee on the future of the Senate, which backed the election of senators. However, the provincial government wants Ottawa to pay for the elections and has not made any move to hold such elections since the task force reported in 2009.

Others Harper appointed to the Senate Friday include Ottawa police Chief Vern White, former Newfoundland Conservative MP Norman Doyle, the director of the Conservative Party in Quebec Ghislain Maltais, Toronto obstetrician Dr. Asha Seth and former police officer and 2011 Quebec Conservative candidate Jean-Guy Dagenais.

The appointments of Buth, Doyle, Unger, Seth, and Maltais are effective immediately. They will be sworn in when the Senate resumes Jan. 31.

White’s appointment is effective as of Feb. 20. Dagenais’s appointment has no date attached to it yet.

Buth said she is not intimidated by the rough-and-tumble nature of Parliament Hill, although she has no direct political experience.

“Agriculture is a tough business,” she said. “I’m used to tough.”

Manitoba has six senators in the upper chamber. Buth joins Conservatives Terry Stratton, Janis Johnson, and Don Plett, and Liberals Maria Chaput and Rod Zimmer.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca