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You don’t have to be a card-carrying Liberal to be named as an independent senator, but it appears increasingly as if you have a better chance of becoming one if you are a prominent small-l liberal.

Only one of the six new senators appointed to represent Ontario in the Senate is a regular contributor to the Liberal Party of Canada – former Scotiabank vice-chairman Sarabjit Marwah has donated $2.400 to the Liberals since 2010.

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But a pattern is emerging. The list of 15 senators appointed in the past week by the Trudeau government is sprinkled with human rights activists, women’s issues experts and social workers.

They may not be swivel-eyed partisans, in the manner of appointees in days gone by. And they are a massive improvement on the Harper government’s habit of providing a second feast at the public trough for failed election candidates.

But stacking the Senate will fellow travellers is as sure to undermine its legitimacy as the previous tactic of providing a soft, ermine-covered landing for hacks, flacks and bagmen.