Conservative Senator Pat Carney (left), summoned to the Senate in 1990 by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, is retiring.
Carney, a former journalist who was a Mulroney-era Cabinet minister who helped speed the Free Trade deal along, is retiring from the Senate three years before the legal retirement age of 75.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement and did not say why she is retiring:
“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to thank Pat Carney for her 25 years of service to our country. She has been a passionate voice for British Columbia, first as a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet Minister and as a Senator.
Pat has been a strong voice for women’s rights in Canada and aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities in her native British Columbia.
She was elected as the Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre in 1980, the first woman to serve as a Conservative MP from British Columbia, and was re-elected in 1984. Summoned to the Senate of Canada in 1990, Pat is the second longest serving member of the Conservative Caucus.
Once again, I thank Pat for all her hard work on behalf of her constituents and her country.”