Sen. Marc Gold's career as the government's representative in the Senate is ending, closing a chapter he called "the greatest privilege" of his life.
Gold reaches the Senate's mandatory retirement age of 75 on Monday.
He was first appointed in 2016. He said he sought out the role because he wanted to help bring a sense of legitimacy back to the Senate after an expense scandal rocked the chamber of sober second thought.
"I wanted to be part of the modernization of and revitalization of an institution that, rightly or wrongly, had slipped," Gold told The Canadian Press, adding that the "legitimacy and integrity" of the Senate, "rightly or wrongly, had been sullied in the minds of Canadians."
Gold said he saw establishing a climate of non-partisanship in the Senate as a key factor in restoring the institution's legitimacy.
The Independent Senators Group formed after Justin Trudeau, as the leader of the Liberal party, removed senators from the Liberal caucus in 2014. That move, which came before Trudeau became prime minister, was done as the Senate was still reeling from an expense scandal involving Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and others.
Trudeau said he did it to try and reduce partisanship in the upper chamber.
The Independent Senators Group was not formally recognized in the Senate until 2016, the year Gold was first appointed.
"The Senate was at risk of being either an echo chamber of the partisanship that you see in the House of Commons, or simply a rubber stamp when the same party controlled both houses," he said.
"So I think the changes that were introduced in 2016 rebalance the relationship between the House and the Senate in an important way, but not in a revolutionary way. The Senate was always intended to be an institution that took a longer-range view of policy."
Gold became an unaffiliated senator in 2020 after Trudeau asked him to serve as the government's representative in the Senate, tasking him with guiding government legislation through the upper chamber.
Gold said he hasn't seen a "marked change" in the relationship between the House of Commons and the Senate relationship under either Trudeau or Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Gold said he experienced "all kinds of mixed and powerful feelings" when the Senate passed C-5, the government's major projects bill, on Thursday — his final day in the Senate chamber.
Gold said that he can't speak to Carney's plans for the Senate but he hopes the upper chamber will continue to operate in its current form.
"I do believe the Senate's transformation into a more independent and less partisan institution over the past decade has been a major success in democratic reform," he said.
"The Senate is now more closely aligned to its original and true constitutional purpose. And I do hope that this progress will continue."
Gold said that while it might sound clichéd, he really is looking forward to spending more time with two things he loves — his family and music.
"One of my great passions in life is music. I still play in a few bands. I'm starting a new band in my hometown, in Sutton, Quebec. And I can't wait to be working on that in the weeks to come," Gold said.
While his new "bluesy" band does not yet have a name, Gold said he will continue playing guitar in his other two bands, Hard Knocks and The Steamfitters.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
