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Prime Minister Stephen Harper once promised to never appoint a senator.

He ended up appointing 59.

Since Harper first formed government in February 2006, only three of the senators he has named were elected; all others were straight-up, run-of-the-mill appointments.

And a handful of those appointments have been giving their leader a rough ride.

Sen. Don Meredith became the latest thorn in Harper’s side last night when allegations of sexual relations with a minor surfaced. Meredith was already the subject of a Senate investigation on account of his high staff turnover and rumours of harassment and bullying in his office.

READ MORE: Sen. Don Meredith removed from Tory caucus after teen alleges sexual relationship

Shortly after the news broke Wednesday night, the Prime Minister’s Office kicked Meredith out of the Conservative caucus.

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Meredith left the latest in a series of bruises some of Harper’s appointments have dealt the prime minister, the Conservative party and the Senate.

Three of Harper’s higher-profile appointments were famously suspended in November 2013 after becoming the subject of internal investigations into questionable expense claims.

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When allegations of potentially inappropriate expenses became more widespread, the Senate invited the federal auditor general in to comb in detail through the numbers — and Harper’s headache continued to grow.

READ MORE: Senators charge for golf, wedding celebrations and booking personal appointments

The resulting audit showed seven of his appointments, all currently sitting, had filed potentially inappropriate expenses; one of those, Pierre-Hugues Boisevenu, decided to leave caucus when he learned his file was among those being referred to the RCMP.

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In total, 10 Harper appointees have left the upper chamber, though not all in disgrace: Two have passed away; some have simply retired. Larry Smith gets an asterisk of his own: He was sitting, then resigned to run for MP in Quebec but lost, so was then re-appointed and is currently sitting as a Conservative senator.