{"id":119893,"date":"2026-07-07T14:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/119893\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:59:10","slug":"carney-names-his-principal-secretary-a-former-conservative-mp-to-senate-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/119893\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney names his principal secretary, a former Conservative MP to Senate – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\tBy David Baxter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted July 7, 2026 10:15 am\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> has named his principal secretary Tom Pitfield to the Senate<\/a> and says he is dropping the non-partisan criteria for appointments to the upper chamber.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pitfield is one of four new appointments to the Senate announced today, the first Carney has made since he took office more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

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Conservative MP Richard Martel is also on the list, who along with Pitfield will represent Quebec.<\/p>\n

Pitfield is a longtime Liberal strategist who has served as Carney\u2019s principal secretary since he became prime minister in March 2025.<\/p>\n

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Martel was first elected in 2018 and has served in several opposition leadership roles including Quebec lieutenant under Conservative leader Erin O\u2019Toole.<\/p>\n

New Brunswick cancer researcher Dr. Rodney Ouellette and Manitoba chartered professional accountant Geeta Tucker round out Carney\u2019s first round of Senate appointments.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By David Baxter The Canadian Press Posted July 7, 2026 10:15 am 1 min read Descrease article font…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[17,111,113,8746],"class_list":["post-119893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-canada","tag-mark-carney","tag-politics","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}