Senator Sandra: Long time Windsor politician now in the upper house of Canada's democracy
Long time Windsor politician, Sandra Pupatello, is now a Canadian Senator.
Pupatello was sworn in May 29 as a Senator, and she is now a member of the Canadian Senators Group (CSG).
'I'm pretty excited,' Pupatello said Friday in studio on AM800's 'The Shift with Patty Handysides.'
Pupatello said she was thrilled to see former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty at the ceremony in Ottawa.
'I'm really in gratitude because of a lot of the roles he gave me,' she said.
Pupatello was an MPP for Windsor West from 1995 until 2011, during which time she served as Minister of Education and Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
The latter, Pupatello told Handysides, is where she plans to focus her work in the Senate.
'I genuinely think you use the platform of the Senate, and you move the things that you know are important at the time,' Pupatello said.
She plans to focus on the U.S. tariff threat.
'It's a whole new world now just because of this existential threat wondering is our supply chain gonna hold?' Pupatello said arguing Canada went 'the easy' route by relying on the Americans for trade.
'This is actually the perfect time for me to jump into those issues, for Windsor in particular,' she said.
'This is our time. We need to put our foot on the pedal.'
Pupatello also noted since former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started to shift the Senate away from partisanship, every single piece of government legislation has been amended or 'tweaked'.
'It's called the chamber of sober second thought,' Pupatello explained.
Pupatello joins Senator Sharon Burey as the second Senator to hail from Windsor.
Check out the full interview by scrolling to the one-hour 15-minute mark.
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