NDP leader Tom Mulcair blasts Harper for appointing defeated candidate to Senate

Federal New Democratic leader Tom Mulcair ripped into Prime Minister Stephen Harper for appointing a defeated Conservative candidate to the Senate.

Yonah Martin, who lost in the riding of New Westminster-Coquitlam, was given a $132,000 Senate patronage post by Harper. She stands to collect up to $6 million in public funds if she serves a full lifetime term as senator.

Mulcair said an NDP federal government would not appoint any senators. He said the NDP would work to get rid of the unelected chamber altogether.

“We have had the same principled position for 50 years,” he said in Surrey on Thursday.

“This is a democracy. We don’t need an imitation relic of the British House of Lords where dukes and earls literally lord it over the others and tell the common folks what to do.”

Mulcair is in B.C. for a series of events to focus attention on Harper’s record on the senate which has been rocked by scandals involving Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb.

On Thursday, Mulcair held an open house for the community of Surrey along with NDP MP’s Jinny Sims and Jasbir Sandhu.