Grey promising that if "we don't get this seat, we'll get 10 in the next election", Prime Minister Brian Mulroney agreed to advise Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn to appoint Waters to the Canadian Senate. On June 11, 1990, Stan Waters was sworn into the Senate. He was also the first representative of the Reform Party in the Upper House. During his year-long tenure as a senator, Waters spoke for Western Canadian and conservative values. He pushed for an end to official bilingualism, urged health care reform, opposed federal funding grants to artists and fervently pushed the Mulroney Government to adopt a "Triple-E Senate" (elected, effective and equal) during the constitutional debates of 1990–91. On the abortion issue, Waters was pro-choice, which put him somewhat at odds with the Reform Party's conservative Christian supporters. Death and legacy Waters was admitted to the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary to treat in July 1991, and later died of complications at Foothills on September 25. After Waters' death, Alberta Premier Don Getty lauded his contribution towards Senate reform, calling the momentum created by his election "unstoppable". When the federal Liberal Party was returned to power in the 1993 election under party leader Jean Chrétien, Senate reform was all but abandoned. Chrétien and his successor, Paul Martin, did not advise the appointment to the Senate of candidates elected by Albertans in 1998 and 2004, citing the fact that the elections are not part of the Senate selection process, as defined by the Constitution of Canada. His son Mark Waters served as leader of the Alberta Political Alliance, a minor provincial political party. Archives There is a Stan Waters fonds at Library and Archives Canada. References |- 1920 births 1991 deaths Canadian military personnel from Manitoba Canadian senators from Alberta Reform Party of Canada senators Canadian Army personnel of World War II Politicians from Winnipeg Canadian senators-in-waiting from Alberta University of Alberta alumni Canadian generals Commanders of the Canadian Army