Bernadette Clement | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Facilitator of the Independent Senators Group | |
| Assumed office June 24, 2023 | |
| Leader | Raymonde Saint-Germain |
| Preceded by | Tony Dean |
| Canadian Senator fromOntario | |
| Assumed office June 22, 2021 | |
| Nominated by | Justin Trudeau |
| Appointed by | Richard Wagner |
| Preceded by | Nicole Eaton |
| Mayor ofCornwall | |
| In office December 1, 2018 – June 22, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Leslie O'Shaughnessy |
| Succeeded by | Glen Grant |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1965-05-17)May 17, 1965 (age 60)[1] |
| Political party | Independent (since 2018) |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal (until 2018) |
| Profession |
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Bernadette Clement (born May 17, 1965) is aCanadian politician, who was appointed to the Canadian Senate by Liberal prime ministerJustin Trudeau on June 22, 2021.[2] She was previously mayor ofCornwall, Ontario, having been elected in the2018 Ontario municipal elections, after serving three terms as a municipal councillor.[3] ABlack Canadian,[4] she is the first woman and first person of colour to serve as mayor of the city,[5] and the first Black Canadian woman to serve as a mayor in Ontario.[4]
Senator Clement joined theIndependent Senators Group's Facilitation Team as Chamber Coordinator in December 2022.[6] She was elected as Deputy Facilitator six months later.[7]
Born and raised inMontreal,Quebec, as the daughter of aTrinidadian father and aFranco-Manitoban mother, Clement attended theUniversity of Ottawa, earning degrees in bothcivil law andcommon law and was called to theOntario bar in 1991. She moved to Cornwall to begin working at what is now the Roy McMurtry Legal Clinic, ultimately becoming its executive director, and continued to work there up to the time of her appointment to the Senate.[8] She was first elected toCornwall City Council in 2006 as a city councillor.[9][10]
She conducted her mayoral campaign on the themes of developing a more collaborative team-oriented approach to managing the city, as well as seeking a way to advance the city's proposed but long-delayed waterfront redevelopment project.[8]
Clement also ran as aLiberal Party of Canada candidate for the electoral district ofStormont—Dundas—South Glengarry in the2011 Canadian federal election and the2015 Canadian federal election.[8]