Way To Go Stephen......

...as usual you have made the best of a bad situation.

Prime minister fills 18 vacant Senate seats

Updated Mon. Dec. 22 2008 1:10 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has appointed new senators, including CTV broadcaster Mike Duffy, former broadcaster Pamela Wallin and skier Nancy Greene Raine, to fill 18 vacancies in the Red Chamber.

The Maritimes and Quebec are well represented, with seven and four new senators respectively. Ontario has two, Saskatchewan has one, British Columbia has three, while one new senator hails from the Yukon.

Harper's list of new senators reads as a who's who of Conservative party operatives, with some surprises.

Representing Newfoundland is former MP Fabian Manning, who lost his seat in the riding of Avalon in October's federal election.

Appointees from Nova Scotia are Halifax lawyer Fred Dickson, one of Canada's foremost legal experts on offshore resource development; Stephen Greene, a former chief of staff to Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald; and Michael L. MacDonald, a Halifax Conservative organizer and former executive assistant to two federal cabinet ministers.

Former CTV broadcaster and host of "Mike Duffy Live" Mike Duffy enters the upper chamber representing his native Prince Edward Island.

New Brunswick MLA Percy Mockler and lawyer John D. Wallace round out the list of East Coast appointees.

The four new senators from Quebec are Patrick Brazeau, National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples; former Quebec MP Suzanne Fortin-Duplessis; Montreal businessman Leo Housakos; and former mayor of Beauport and Quebec MNA Michel Rivard.

Representing Ontario are Conservative Party fundraiser and Member of the Order of Canada Irving Gerstein, as well as charity fundraiser and columnist Nicole Eaton.

British Columbia cultural activist Yonah Martin, former B.C. minister of energy mines and petroleum Richard Neufeld, and former member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly Hector Daniel Lang round out the list.

After years of successive Liberal governments, the 105-seat Senate had been made up of 58 Grits and 20 Conservatives prior to today's announcement.

Harper's decision to fill empty seats with Conservative appointees is a controversial one, given that he has long expressed his desire for an elected Senate, whereby each province would send their own representatives to Ottawa.

Under the current system, the prime minister chooses senators.

Harper has also said he would like the current 45-year term, which carries a mandatory retirement age of 75, to be reduced to just eight years.

"Our government will continue to push for a more democratic, accountable and effective Senate," Harper said in a news release. "If Senate vacancies are to be filled, however, they should be filled by the government that Canadians elected rather than by a coalition that no one voted for."

Harper said all of the senators support eight-year term limits and other proposed Senate reforms.

The opposition has criticized Harper's decision to make patronage appointments at a time when he is mired in a political crisis that is threatening his government.

Earlier this month, Harper was forced to ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to prorogue Parliament to fend off a Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition that was waiting to take power after a confidence vote.

The crisis, which was spurred by a poorly received economic update that did not contain a stimulus package for the sputtering economy, is merely on hold until late January, when Parliament resumes and the Conservatives are scheduled to table a budget.