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OTTAWA — B.C.’s newest senator, who describes himself as a middle-of-the-road public policy “egghead,” found himself at the centre of a bitter partisan spat over ethnicity on Friday.

The conflict centred on a federal New Democratic Party MP’s reaction to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appointment of Yuen Pau Woo, former head of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, to the scandal-plagued upper chamber.

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The NDP’s Nathan Cullen seized on the fact Woo has long supported closer Canada-China trade ties, and in particular the construction of pipelines to ship diluted Alberta bitumen through B.C. ports to Asian refineries.

Cullen is an strong opponent of the proposed $7.9-billion Northern Gateway that would go through his Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding.

The appointment would have only made sense if “it was the Chinese government that appointed him to the Canadian Senate, because he’s certainly very focused on looking out for Chinese interests,” Cullen said.