John D. Wallace (born 26 March 1949) is a lawyer and retired

Canadian Senator The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the Bri ...

Early life and career

Wallace was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and raised and educated in New Brunswick. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration (1971) and Bachelor of Laws (1973) degrees from the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...

. Wallace practiced law in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

where he was a partner in the law firms of Palmer, O’Connell, Leger, Turnbull and Turnbull and Stewart McKelvey before leaving private practice to serve as Corporate Counsel for Irving Oil Limited for 17 years.

Senate

On 22 December 2008, it was announced that he would be appointed on the advice of

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

to the Senate. He assumed office on 2 January 2009. In 2014, ''

The Hill Times ''The Hill Times'' is a Canadian twice-weekly newspaper and daily news website, published in Ottawa, Ontario, which covers the Parliament of Canada, the federal government, and other federal political news. Founded in 1989 by Ross Dickson and Jim ...

'' reported that Wallace was part of a bipartisan group of Liberal and Conservative Senators that secretly met to discuss how to reform the Senate from within. On 18 November 2015, Wallace announced that he was leaving the Conservative caucus because of irreconcilable differences between himself and party leadership over the role of partisanship in the Senate, citing the 2014 Supreme Court Reference that declared that the

Fathers of Confederation The Fathers of Confederation are the 36 people who attended at least one of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 (23 attendees), the Quebec Conference of 1864 (33 attendees), and the London Conference of 1866 (16 attendees), preceding Canadian ...

wanted the Senate to be "thoroughly independent." Wallace announced on 13 December 2016, that he was retiring from the Senate effective 1 February 2017, just over seven years prior to reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, as he promised when he was appointed that he would only serve eight years in the Upper House. None of the other 17 senators appointed with Wallace in January 2009 who made the same pledge, have announced plans to step down.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, John D. 1949 births Canadian senators from New Brunswick Conservative Party of Canada senators Independent Canadian senators Living people People from Rothesay, New Brunswick Politicians from Toronto 21st-century Canadian politicians University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law alumni Lawyers in New Brunswick