Interview: two senators look at life in the Upper House.

• Author: Schwinghamer, Karen
• Position: Sharon Carstairs and Wilbert Keon - Interview

Two senior members of Canada's Upper Chamber reflect on their careers in the Senate and the role of the Upper Chamber in Canada's political life. The interviews were conducted separately in June 2007 by Karen Schwinghamer of Senate Communications. Sharon Carstairs is a Liberal senator from Manitoba. She is Chair of the Special Committee on Aging. Senator Wilbert Keon is a Conservative Senator from Ottawa. He is Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology and Chair of its sub committee on Population Health.

By way of background can you describe your early life and any impressions you had of the Senate before your appointment?

Senator Keon: I graduated from medical school in Ottawa and undertook further studies in general surgery at McGill. I specialized in cardiac surgery at Toronto and then did my final research training at Harvard. I wanted a research career. When I came back to Canada, the people at Harvard helped me with my initial application, it was successful at the Medical Research Council and I was funded for several years.

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I started the Heart Institute in Ottawa with two people--my assistant and I shared an office. I left with a thousand people, several of them leading scientists in the world. When I turned 55, I started thinking about how I was going to retire. I did not want to be doing heart surgery when I was older and losing my coordination. I wanted to retire when I was doing my very best.

I actually knew the Senate quite well before I was appointed. When I was a boy growing up in Ottawa, I knew a number of senators. When I came back from studying at Harvard, I relied on senators to help me stickhandle the politics to get the Heart Institute up and running.

Three senators--George McIlraith, Orville Phillips and John Connolly kept my requests on the agenda both in Ottawa and in Toronto.

When the opportunity to come into the Senate presented itself in 1990, I accepted. I was not sure whether I would stay or not, but I came. It was a total surprise.

Senator Carstairs: I am a teacher by profession. I taught for 20 years in schools in Alberta, Manitoba, as well as in Massachusetts. My father had been a politician and I grew up in political life so I always thought it was a very challenging and very rewarding profession.

I decided to enter provincial politics in 1984 and started at the top by becoming Leader of the Liberal party in Manitoba. I was elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1986, and was re-elected in 1988 and 1990. I resigned as Leader of the party in June 1994 and became a senator.

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Politics was a relatively easy choice for me and I do not regret having made that choice. But I can understand why some women today choose not to make that choice, because they have seen invasiveness of the political arena into their personal lives. When I began it was a time where there was less engagement of family members in politics and there was less engagement of a person's political life into their personal life.

Because of my background I knew the Senate fairly well. I had arrived on the Hill for the first time in the Fall of 1955, so I was aware of the traditions of the Senate. I knew the halls, I knew the layout, I had been in the Chamber for Speeches from the Throne.

Before my appointment I had several calls with the Prime Minister. The first one was to see whether I wanted the appointment, because I had indicated in the past that I did not want to come to the Senate because my father had been in the Senate for 25 years, and I did not like the distance that it had created between my mother and my father. I was not prepared to accept a lifestyle like that. It was only after my husband had taken early retirement and agreed that he would come with me wherever I was, that I agreed the Senate would work for me.

Having served on a number of committees, which ones stand out in your mind?

Senator Carstairs: I actually had not even been sworn in, when I agreed to sit on the Special Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, which reported in 1995. It was an issue that fascinated me and that is how I got to know Senator Keon. That made me recognize the importance of special committees. I am a great fan of these studies. You can concentrate full-time on a particular topic.

I did my subsequent study on palliative care through a sub-committee of the Standing Committee of Social Affairs, Science and Technology, but it was really almost like a special study. I also sat on the Special Committee on Drugs, and had to leave when I became Leader of the Government.

Senator Keon: When I first came to the Senate I served on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. That was the beginning of Meech Lake, and they were going to reform the Senate at that time. With the defeat of the Charlottetown Accord that piece of work collapsed.

One major report that I worked on was the Life and Death report of the Special Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. We looked at the whole phenomenon of end of life.

I moved to Social Affairs, Science and Technology because I wanted to push the agenda on a number of things, including creation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Foundation for...