Adler appointment to Senate draws heavy fire

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This article was published 20/08/2024 (460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Today’s appointment of Charles Adler, one of Justin Trudeau’s biggest cheerleaders and most vicious anti-Conservative attack dogs in the media, and Tracy Muggli, Team Trudeau Liberal candidate and prolific Liberal Party donor, prove that Trudeau is appointing his Liberal friends to defend his disastrous policies.”

— Conservative Party of Canada statement

“Charles Adler used to call the Senate a “barn” that needed to be burned down. That was before Justin Trudeau gave him a patronage appointment to that same barn. Did Adler ever mean anything he said?”

— Ezra Levant in a post on X

“There are many eminently qualified Manitobans who are better suited to represent our province than Charles Adler.”

— Saint Boniface-Saint Vital Liberal MP Dan Vandal in a statement, Monday

“How can any First Nation feel that his reviews of legislation impacting reserves, treaties, and inherent rights would be even remotely favourable to the original peoples of these lands? Did Canada not learn from the situation surrounding former Senator Lynn Beyak?”

— Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Cathy Merrick

Boy, that didn’t take long.

No sooner had the media headlines on Saturday announced the fact of his appointment to the Senate by the Trudeau government, than the knives came out for Manitoba broadcaster Charles Adler.

The longtime conservative radio host and Winnipeg Free Press columnist was one of two new independent senators appointed by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon. Adler will serve as a Manitoba senator while health-care executive Tracy Muggli will serve as a Saskatchewan senator.

A press release issued by the Governor General’s office praised Adler’s use of his platform “to champion human rights and Canadian democracy.”

As noted, Adler’s career as a radio host, journalist and commentator has spanned five decades, but it has not gone without controversy.

Certainly it must be said that if you’re going to be a small-c conservative radio host, you’re likely going to say something controversial to get the audience either listening to you or up in arms. But a rant he made in 1999 while working for CJOB that called out the leadership of First Nations as “uncivilized” and “boneheads” was being held up on Monday as evidence that Mr. Adler is not the human rights champion he’s made out to be.

“I believe in free enterprise, which does not exist on reserves,” he said in a lengthy rant. “I believe in law and order, which does not exist. I believe in responsible government, that does not exist there. But if people want to get off and out of those ghettos and live in democratic society, there are jobs available.”

In that same on-air rant, Adler further spoke directly to Indigenous people living on reserve, saying that they had options and didn’t have to stay in a community run by people “who haven’t got a clue and don’t wish to.”

This particular show had prompted the AMC at the time to issue a formal complaint with the CRTC and the Broadcast Standards Council of Canada over what they called “vulgar and racist commentary.” Ultimately his rant was deemed “fair political commentary,” according to the Western Standard, however much it infuriated some of those who listened to it. However, it’s not surprising that the leadership of the AMC feels that offended and insulted by his Senate appointment, and has further asked the prime minister to rescind it.

Considering Mr. Adler’s ongoing criticism of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — he called Poilievre “complacent,” “smug” and “very easy to dislike” in a conversation with The Tyee last April, for example — it’s not surprising that Trudeau decided to enlist his talent for bashing his opponent and give him a Senate seat. Whether Trudeau will do an about-face after hearing from the AMC is anybody’s guess.

Yet it is telling how many Manitoba Liberals must be chafing at Adler’s appointment, particularly those loyalists who believed it should have been them. Even Manitoba MP Dan Vandal, currently in Trudeau’s cabinet, risked getting left on the outside looking in prior to an upcoming cabinet shuffle by criticizing the Senate choice.

It’s also not particularly surprising that conservative voices that are loyal to Poilievre, and virulently anti-Trudeau, came out swinging against Adler — once a Conservative Party supporter — over the weekend. They have long viewed Charles Adler as a turncoat, even as Mr. Adler has repeatedly stated that his party left him, not the other way around.

“If they ever go back to being a real conservative party, I will go back to being their biggest cheerleader,” Adler told CBC radio this past weekend.

If there is one truism for Mr. Adler and his future as a Senator, it’s that he faces some difficulty on the other side of the divide between journalist and political figure. For while he may count himself as an independent, he will now be open to the same tough criticism that he once levelled at elected and unelected officials.

And like those media stars before him who accepted Senate appointments — Mike Duffy or Pamela Wallin — the harsh light of the public spotlight may prove difficult to take.