Who will be Nunavut’s next senator?

Former Nunavut Senator Willie Adams has a laugh during a committee hearing in Iqaluit in this February, 2008 file photo. Adams retired last month, leaving Nunavut’s lone Senate seat vacant. (FILE PHOTO)

Willie Adams, Nunavut’s outgoing senator, once said 21 years is “a long time to hold office without having to face an election.”

Adams retired this summer after 32 years on the job, but it’s possible his still-unchosen successor may be limited to eight years in the Red Chamber.

The Senate is pondering a bill that would limit members appointed after Oct. 14, 2008 to one eight-year term. Now senators, who can be appointed at age 30, may serve until they’re 75.

“The fact that senators can hold their seats for as long as 45 years is contrary to the democratic ideals of Canadians,” said Steven Fletcher, the minister of state for democratic reform, in a news release. Fletcher said the bill also “creates a solid basis for further reform,” without giving further details.

It’s the second crack at such a bill for the Conservatives, who introduced similar legislation in 2007, which languished in report stage in the Senate and died on the order paper when the Parliamentary session ended.

Speculation is rife over who will replace Adams, who retired this summer after turning 75, at a time when Nunavut’s Senate seat, and eight other vacant ones, are of unusual political importance.

A spokeswoman at his office said Adams wasn’t commenting on the matter of who should be Nunavut’s next senator, but said he’d like to see the seat filled soon.

“He doesn’t want the seat untended for long,” she said.

But a Sun Media story last month reported that Adams feels the next Senator should come from the Baffin region, and that he’d been planning to submit a list of names to Leona Aglukkaq, the federal health minister and Nunavut’s MP.

Speaking to reporters in Iqaluit Tuesday, Aglukkaq said she hasn’t heard from Adams regarding a potential replacement. She added she hasn’t spoken to Prime Minister Stephen Harper about a new Senator for Nunavut and doesn’t know when a replacement would be announced.

Aglukkaq also said she doesn’t have any preferences for a new Senator. “I think there are a lot of people in Nunavut who can take the position. In terms of what they’re looking for, I haven’t had a discussion with the Prime Minister on that.”

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami has also weighed in, with president Mary Simon urging Harper to appoint an Inuk to the seat before Parliament resumes in mid-September.

The odds of Nunavut getting a chance to elect its next senator appear slim. Despite past promises to allow the election of senators, Harper said last weekend he’d continue to appoint Conservatives to the upper chamber.

The Calgary Herald reported Harper is tired of seeing anti-crime bills stalled by the Liberal dominated Senate and said that he will continue to appoint Conservatives “until the will of the people is heard.”

A total of Senate 11 seats, including Adams’, will be vacant by the end of the year.

The last batch of senate appointments came in December, 2008, when Harper appointed 18 new members of the upper house. Harper has also appointed an elected senator before: in April, 2007 he appointed Bert Brown, who won a 2004 senate election held in Alberta.