PM Trudeau appoints Cornwall Mayor Clement to Senate

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau announced on June 22 that the Administrator of the Government of Canada appointed Bernadette Clement, Hassan Yussuff, and James Quinn as independent Senators to fill vacancies for Ontario and New Brunswick.

Ms. Clement is a lawyer, the Executive Director of the Roy McMurtry Legal Clinic, and until recently, filled the role of Mayor of Cornwall. Clement has devoted much of her life to the betterment of the city. Through various professional and volunteer leadership roles, she has served many members of her community, including newcomers, women fleeing violence, and people with developmental disabilities. Bernadette Clement, the mayor of Cornwall, Ont., will be trading her spot at Cornwall city hall for a seat in Parliament's upper chamber.

Elected as mayor in 2018, Clement was the first female to become mayor of Cornwall, and is believed to be the first Black female mayor in Ontario. Prior to being elected mayor she served three terms as a city councilor.

She was the first woman to ever hold the position of mayor in Cornwall and the first Black woman to be elected mayor of any city in Ontario.

"I'm joyful, I'm proud, I'm honored especially ... but I'm also really sad. Leaving the job of mayor of Cornwall is difficult for me," Clement told CBC Radio's All in a Day.

Clement, who's been a municipal politician for 15 years and a legal clinic lawyer for 30, said the bonding between mayor and council has been "pretty intense" during the pandemic, making it hard to leave her job.

"I've always loved government and politics at every level," she said. "I'm really looking forward to this next chapter."

Clement noted she'll be joining only a handful of Black senators. She said many people of color have been contacting her, wanting to connect this past year, from across Canada "to be connected to leadership that reflects who they are."

"It's powerful. Representation matters," she said. "We want representation and reflection of Canada in all the spaces where decisions are being made."

In a statement posted to her Facebook page, Clement said her appointment "is an incredible honor, which feels both thrilling and wistful. Being the mayor of Cornwall was a job that spoke to my heart in ways that I could not have imagined," she wrote. "It has been most heartening to me to have had little girls tell me that they would run for mayor one day. That is a beautiful thing."

Over the course of the pandemic Clement has worked with the federal government on a number of issues; in February 2020, Cornwall was selected as a location for passengers to quarantine after returning home from an outbreak on a cruise ship in Japan, Clement also recently met with Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to discuss a plan for reopening the border with the U.S.

Clement will sit as an independent senator representing Ontario, the news release added.

In her last meeting with Cornwall City Councilors on Monday, Clement said, "The sadness that I feel about leaving council before finishing this term - I do not tend to leave things. My resignation as mayor feels very difficult and abrupt. I want you to know that I could not control the timing of this appointment."

"I've been most honored to be the first woman mayor of Cornwall," said Clement. "It has been most heartening to me, to have had little girls tell me that they would one day too, run for mayor - that's a beautiful thing.

"Your voices will be heard there (senate)."

She added, "It's really been so important this last year, where we have leaned into issues around Black Lives Matter and systemic racism," she said. "It's very important that I wear all the hats that I wear. It's important for people to see themselves reflected in every place where Canadian decisions take place."

Her message to others interested in politics, especially girls and women, is to try.

"It's so important not to be afraid of winning or losing because that's where you learn. It's important to support women running for office, and to be inspired by women and girls around you are doing wonderful things. It's important to just do it," she said.