Long-time political commentator Charles Adler’s appointment to the Senate has been met with much criticism and questions concerning the Upper Chamber’s so-called independence.
Adler’s appointment was announced on Saturday, along with former Liberal party candidate Tracy Muggli. Both were appointed as independent senators by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“The Senate of Canada will be stronger with its newest independent senators. Mr. Adler and Ms. Muggli will put their vast experience and knowledge to work for all Canadians in their new roles,” said Trudeau in a news release.
There has long been criticism that Trudeau has failed to deliver on his promise to keep the senate independent based on his appointments over the years and his appointment of Adler has even struck a nerve within his own cabinet.
“There are many eminently qualified Manitobans who are better suited to represent our province than Charles Adler,” said Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal in a statement.
Many people on X criticized the choice as well, lamenting how they could not share their thoughts with Adler because they had previously been blocked by him.
Political commentator and YouTuber J.J. McCullogh also voiced his discontent with how Adler’s appointment is being reported on, calling out the CBC for the framing.
“This is such bad CBC reporting. Describing Charles Adler, who is now a politician appointed to a political job by a partisan prime minister, as simply “a prominent political commentator” without mentioning any of his views is deeply irresponsible,” wrote McCullogh.
However, Adler told the CBC in an interview that his appointment stands as proof that the Senate is independent because he views himself as a small ‘c’ conservative.
“I had such a hard time believing that a person who is a Liberal prime minister — and his critics would say too liberal — would even think about offering this to someone who has been for the most part a small ‘c’ conservative,” Adler told CBC News.
“To me, nothing proves independence more than someone like me.”
Adler, who was once critical of Trudeau, has had a major political shift, however, more often than not praising the prime minister in recent years, in addition to being highly critical of the Conservatives ever since Trudeau first took office in 2015.
He wrote an article for Global News in 2020 titled “Charles Adler on why he’s no longer a conservative,” where he described his fallout with the party, citing what he saw as “conservatism (that) keeps moving further and further to the right.”
Yet in an interview with the CBC over the weekend he said he was shocked that Trudeau asked him to take the position because he is “known as a conservative firebrand” until “they orphaned me and millions of others Canadians.”
He went on to say if the Conservative party would return to a party “which embraced human rights, diversity, embraced equality, the rule of law” and “wasn’t trying to smash institutions like the Bank of Canada and others” that he would be their “biggest cheerleader.”
Adler’s criticisms intensified after Pierre Poilivre became leader of the Conservative party in 2022, telling the National Post following his senate appointment, “I don’t think much of him.”
Adler has cited Poilievre’s relationship to legacy media as part of his problem with him, saying that the Conservative leader is “abusing” those outlets and should consider himself “very lucky that most media people don’t talk back.”
“I don’t want to get too partisan here, but I mean, I am who I am,” said Adler.
Adler has not only been a critic of the Conservative party in recent years but has also been critical of the senate itself, calling for it to be abolished on several occasions, something that lawyer Eva Chipiuk noted in her post.
In a 2013 post, Adler said,” Canada can’t be Canada without a Senate? Really? Aren’t u tired of Senators treating the Red Chamber the way DSK treated the chamber maid?”
Then in 2016 he said the Conservatives “should propose Senate abolition in 1st term of a new government. Let the post Senate era begin.”
