Senate
In June 1993, he was appointed to the Canadian Senate just prior to Mulroney's retirement as Prime Minister of Canada. He chose to adopt the division of Langley-Pemberton-Whistler; such Senate divisions are merely symbolic outside Quebec. In 1998, while still a Progressive Conservative, St. Germain explored the United Alternative option, formed by Reform Party of Canada leader Preston Manning, which was an attempt to unite the right. In June 2000, he sat as an Independent Conservative senator, and in October 2000 he became the only Canadian Alliance senator. Since the Canadian Alliance formed the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, St. Germain argued that he should be the Leader of the Official Opposition in the Senate, but his arguments were rejected by the Speaker. At the request of Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper, St. Germain led the negotiations to unite the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party. When the two parties merged in December 2003, St. Germain a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. On 6 November 2012, St. Germain reached the Senate's mandatory retirment age, 75.
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Famous quotes containing the word senate:
“What times! What manners! The Senate knows these things, the consul sees them, and yet this man lives.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“Like Cato, give his little Senate laws,
And sit attentive to his own applause.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“At first I intended to become a student of the Senate rules and I did learn much about them, but I soon found that the Senate had but one fixed rule, subject to exceptions of course, which was to the effect that the Senate would do anything it wanted to do whenever it wanted to do it.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)