Answer to: Why "Honourable Larry Campbell"???

All he did was calling Stephen Harper and the Conservatives "barbarians".......

Note to other provincial and municipal politicians: If you wanna get a job at the upper chamber, make sure that you call other opposition parties "barbarians" in the next federal election!!!

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PM names Larry Campbell to Senate

Mayor rewarded for helping federal Liberals when they were at risk of being ousted

Peter O'Neil

Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin named Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell to the Senate on Tuesday, rewarding a key political ally who helped the federal Liberals during two crucial moments when the government risked losing power.

Campbell, who called Stephen Harper's Conservatives "barbarians" during the 2004 federal election and earlier this year denounced Harper's plans to topple the Liberal government, said he expects to begin work as a Liberal senator this fall, even though he plans to serve out his term in municipal politics until a new mayor is installed in December.

He vowed to avoid any conflicts of interest in his dual roles and will collect only his $116,000 mayor's salary. The $119,300 Senate salary will kick in once he's left municipal politics for good at the end of the year.

Campbell, 57, said he first discussed the appointment with Martin in mid-July. But he acknowledged that he heard rumours of a possible Senate post earlier this year, around the time he said only a "fool" would force an election and kill federal legislation to funnel gas tax revenues to Canadian municipalities.

He said Tuesday he wasn't "singing for his supper" when he denounced Harper while sharing a stage with Martin in mid-April as the federal government announced $636 million for B.C. cities and towns over five years.

"Absolutely not. I was singing for the municipalities of Canada's and the people of Canada's supper," said Campbell, the former Vancouver chief coroner who was the model and occasional script writer for the television series Da Vinci's Inquest.

Campbell, who was born in Brantford, Ont. and moved to the West Coast in 1969, fills the seat vacated last year when Ed Lawson reached the mandatory retirement age for senators of 75.

The other B.C. senators in the 105-seat upper chamber are Liberals Jack Austin, Ross Fitzpatrick, and Mobina Jaffer, and Conservatives Pat Carney and Gerry St. Germain.

Campbell, who said he has never been a member of a federal or provincial party, said he'll become a Liberal member and continue to champion at the federal level issues he considers important, such as the need to legalize marijuana possession and adequately fund cities.

Other Liberals considered for the vacancy were labour activist Dave Haggard and native leader Miles Richardson, who both ran unsuccessfully under Martin in the 2004 election, and former provincial Liberal leader Gordon Gibson.

Sophia Leung, who gave up her Vancouver Kingsway seat to make way for Industry Minister David Emerson last year, was also considered a leading contender at one point.

Elected as mayor in 2002 as part of the centre-left Coalition of Progressive Electors, Campbell is being touted by some Liberal insiders as a new member of the so-called "dream team" because of his popularity and expertise on big-city issues.

But opposition parties gave the appointment a thumbs-down.

"He's certainly a person of much quality, but that doesn't change the fact that the Senate is fundamentally undemocratic," said New Democratic Party MP Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster,) whose party wants the unelected upper chamber abolished.

Conservative MP James Moore said Campbell's appointment makes sense given that the mayor has been a "mouthpiece" for Martin in recent years.

"I suspect this has been planned for a long time because he's spent more time doing photo ops for the prime minister, and bashing Conservatives who have been standing up for British Columbia for a decade, than he has been actually doing any good business for the City of Vancouver," said Moore (Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.)

Campbell, told of Moore's comment, repeated his 2004 election declaration that the Conservatives were "barbarians at the gates," in part because Harper didn't believe in funnelling federal tax dollars directly to municipalities.

"Well, they can expect a lot more of it, because now that I'll be right there I can take a real close look at them, because they are still the barbarians and they're still at the gate."

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© The Vancouver Sun 2005