Bert Brown - Senatorial Career

Senatorial Career

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to advise the Governor General to appoint Brown to the next available Senate seat from Alberta, according to comments made in the House of Commons April 18, 2007. The announcement came after long serving senator Dan Hays, announced that he intended to vacate his seat in the Senate at the end of June 2007.

Brown was appointed to the Canadian Senate on July 10, 2007. He will serve six years until mandatory retirement.

Brown became the second person in Canadian history, after Stan Waters, to be appointed to his Senate seat following a provincial senator in waiting election. Brown chose to sit with the Conservative Party of Canada caucus (federal party) though he ran under the Progressive Conservative banner(provincial party counterpart) in the Alberta Senate election.

Since his appointment to the Senate Senator Brown has served on the ‘Aboriginal Affairs’, ‘Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament’ and ‘Energy, the Environment & Natural Resources’ Committees. As a permanent member of the Energy Committee, Senator Brown has attended three years of hearings examining the Canadian Energy Sector. A report on this work will be published in the summer 2012.

As a representative of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Senator Brown has travelled the country meeting with Premiers to discuss Senate Reform proposals. In this capacity he reports directly to the Prime Minister of Canada and was tasked with carrying the Senate Reform legislation through the Senate of Canada. During his nearly thirty years of campaigning for an elected Senate, he has met with over 60 Premiers. He was instrumental in the crafting of Bills S-8 ‘The Senate Selection Act’ and C-7 ‘The Senate Reform Act’ both government bills.

Senator Brown is a member of both the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta and the Conservative Party of Canada caucuses. He retires from the Senate in March 2013.