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Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
Pamela Wallin says it was just time to resign.<\/p>\n
After 17 years sitting as a Saskatchewan senator in the chamber of sober second thought, she wanted to move on to other opportunities.<\/p>\n
She said that, contrary to public perception, a senator\u2019s duties are \u201c24-7\u201d and she needed time to figure out what comes next.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know when a job has come to an end and it\u2019s time to move on in your own head and that\u2019s just where I was,\u201d Wallin, 73, told Blue Sky\u2019s Leisha Grebinski.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have other things to do that I want to try.\u201d<\/p>\n
WATCH | Pamela Wallin on why she left the Senate and what’s next for Canada:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792540695_587_default.jpg\")
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Pamela Wallin on why she left the Senate and what’s next for Canada<\/p>\n
Former senator Pamela Wallin joins CBC’s BlueSky host Leisha Grebinski to talk about her resignation from the Upper Chamber and what the future may hold for her and the country.Wide-ranging career<\/p>\n
Wallin has spent her adult life in the public eye.<\/p>\n
Born in Moose Jaw, she was raised in Wadena, 222 kilometres northeast of Regina, before moving to Ontario where she spent 40 years in broadcast journalism, including hosting CTV\u2019s Canada AM, working as that network\u2019s first female bureau chief in Ottawa and co-anchoring CBC\u2019s nightly national newscast Prime Time News.<\/p>\n
She served as Consul General of Canada to New York after 9\/11, appointed to the position by then-prime minister Jean Chr\u00e9tien.<\/p>\n
Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper appointed her to the Senate in 2008. Unlike her high-profile career in journalism, her time as a senator has been quieter, according to Greg Poelzer, a political scientist and professor at the University of Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she was one of the more quiet senators and not really known for making a big impact, say on advancing or supporting new legislation that came into law,\u201d Poelzer told CBC\u2019s Peter Mills on The 306.<\/p>\n
Wallin\u2019s time in the Senate was marred by her involvement in the 2013 Senate expense scandal.<\/p>\n
An audit determined Wallin improperly charged to the Senate about $140,000 in travel expenses related to her work on corporate boards.<\/p>\n
Wallin repaid the money, plus interest, and said she had made a mistake in filing the paperwork.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Greg Poelzer and host Peter Mills discuss Wallin’s resignation on The 306:<\/p>\n
The 3069:28Pamela Wallin resigns from Senate<\/p>\n
Greg Poelzer, a political scientist and a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, joins The 306 to talk about Saskatchewan Senator Pamela Wallin unexpectedly resigning from her position.Advocacy<\/p>\n
Poelzer said Wallin was a vocal advocate in recent years for expanding access to Canada\u2019s Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) program.<\/p>\n
Wallin\u2019s mother had Alzheimer\u2019s, and the former journalist wanted the program to expand and allow people in the early stages of the disease, and others like it, to be able to pre-authorize their medically assisted death.<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced earlier this month that Ottawa will introduce legislation that would \u201copen the door\u201d for advance consent for MAID in situations where their disease will eventually impair a person’s capacity for consent.<\/p>\n
Wallin said the proposed expansion of MAID, something she\u2019d spent 11 years fighting for, seemed like a good time to wrap up her time in the Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d given my final speech on that topic on the Wednesday evening,” Wallin said. “Some little tiny part of my brain said \u2018take the win and move on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallin\u2019s resignation caught many, including Poelzer, by surprise. She still had nearly two years left before hitting the Senate\u2019s mandatory retirement age of 75.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally you would expect a person to complete the term,\u201d Poelzer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the part that caught a lot of people by surprise, because she\u2019s about 18 months, two years away from her term completing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan now has two vacant Senate seats: Wallin\u2019s and the seat belonging to Todd Lewis, who died in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-940636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}