Sudbury-born senator Marie Charette-Poulin resigns

Northern Ontario senator Marie Charette-Poulin resigned her seat recently for health reasons, according to media reports.

Charette-Poulin, 69, was born in Sudbury and raised in Sudbury and Haileybury.

Before getting into politics, she was the founding director of CBC's Northern Ontario French Services, which included launching the Sudbury radio station CBON in 1978. She was also vice-president of the CBC.

In 1995, following the death of Jean Noël Desmarais, Charette-Poulin was appointed to her Senate seat by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. She represented the senate division of Northern Ontario for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Charette-Poulin was the president of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2006 to 2008.

On Jan. 29, 2014, Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau announced all Liberal senators, including Charette-Poulin, were removed from the Liberal caucus, and would continue sitting as Independents.

At the time, Charette-Poulin told NorthernLife.ca she was in “total” support of the move because the decision reflects the desire of Canadians across the country for change in the Senate.

“Justin Trudeau had a lot of courage to make the announcement he did yesterday,” Charette-Poulin said. “The upper chamber is the house, the chamber, of sober second thought. And if you're going to have sober second thought, you cannot be told by your leader – even if he's prime minister – that this is the way you're going to vote.”