Mark Carney appoints one of his top advisors and a Conservative MP to the Senate

Mark Carney appoints one of his top advisors and a Conservative MP to the Senate

Tom Pitfield, who served as principal secretary to PM, joins upper house

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that he will appoint one of his most senior advisers to the Senate, a move that could send shockwaves through the Red Chamber.

Tom Pitfield, who served on Carney's 2025 campaign team and then became a principal secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, has been named to the upper house. The government will also remove the "non-partisan criterion" that previously defined the appointments process under Justin Trudeau.

In a highly unusual move, Carney will also name a sitting Conservative MP, Richard Martel, to the Senate, creating a vacancy in a competitive Quebec riding.

Pitfield, a childhood friend and longtime digital campaign strategist for Trudeau, is a major figure in the modern Liberal movement.

Pitfield's wife, Anna Gainey, is a Liberal MP from Quebec and the secretary of state for children and youth. His father, Michael Pitfield, was a former top civil servant who himself served in the Senate for nearly 30 years.

Before today's announcement, Carney had not named anyone to the Senate since becoming prime minister.

The Pitfield pick signals Carney is willing to make a partisan appointment to a chamber that has undergone a sometimes painful process to try to strip partisanship from its ranks over the last decade.

Trudeau kicked Liberal senators out of the national caucus at the height of the Senate expenses scandal in 2014 and then implemented a process to appoint only independents to the upper house after being elected.

The chamber, once defined almost exclusively by a Liberal-Conservative split, has since divided into five groups and caucuses and some non-affiliated members.

Most Trudeau appointees sit as members of the Independent Senators Group, although some have also joined the Progressive Senate Group and the Canadian Senators Group. Five members of the Government Representative's Office help usher legislation through the Senate.

The 11 Conservative senators remaining in the upper house are members of the national party caucus while the remaining roughly 80 senators are not part of a party that must face the electorate.

Detractors say the Trudeau process stripped the chamber of political actors in favour of neophytes, rendering it irrelevant. Supporters, meanwhile, say the push to appoint independents has made the chamber less beholden to the government-of-the-day and party interests.

The Prime Minister's Office said the Trudeau-era process that largely excluded partisans needs to end.

"This decision recognises the valuable contributions made by Canadians who have chosen to serve in elected office or in other partisan roles, including knowledge of the governing and legislative processes, which will contribute to a stronger, more effective Senate," the PMO said in a news release.

J.P. Tasker is a journalist in CBC's parliamentary bureau who reports for digital, radio and television. He is also a regular panellist on CBC News Network's Power & Politics. He covers the Conservative Party, Canada-U.S. relations, Crown-Indigenous affairs, health policy and the Senate. You can send story ideas and tips to J.P. at jp.tasker@cbc.ca