Памела Уоллин: от журналистики к сенату и политическим скандалам

Canadian senator and television journalist

Pamela Wallin (born April 10, 1953) is a Canadian senator, former television journalist, and diplomat. She was appointed to the senate on January 2, 2009, where she initially sat as a Conservative.

Wallin was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and is of Swedish descent. Wallin spent much of her formative years in Wadena but completed her high school in Moose Jaw. In 1973, she graduated with a degree in psychology and political science from the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus (now the University of Regina) and began her career as an officer at the Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary. Politically, she was a member of The Waffle, a left wing faction in the New Democratic Party that existed in the early to mid 1970s.

In 1974, she began her career in journalism, joining CBC Radio's news division. and was succeeded in June by Hana Gartner. Following her dismissal from CBC News, Wallin briefly returned to CTV as part of its coverage of the 1995 provincial election in Ontario, but did not rejoin the company permanently. Instead, she created her own production company, Pamela Wallin Productions, and launched a daily interview series called Pamela Wallin Live in 1995. In 2005, shortly before her term ended, Wallin bought a apartment for US$379,000. In March 2007, she was appointed the seventh chancellor of the University of Guelph and was installed in June. She sat on the Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan, chaired by Manley, a former cabinet minister. She was also appointed by the governor general as an honorary colonel of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In 2006, Wallin was appointed to the board of Bell Globemedia, owners of The Globe and Mail and CTV Inc. From 2007 to 2011 she served on the board of Oilsands Quest, Inc. and has also served on the board of Gluskin Sheff & Associates, Inc., an investment and wealth management firm and as a member of the advisory board of BMO Harris Bank. In 2013, as a result of the Senate expense claims scandal she was embroiled in, Wallin resigned from all three paid positions she held outside of the Senate: as a director of Gluskin Sheff & Associates, a wealth management firm, in May 2013, the board of Porter Airlines in June 2013 after having been on the board since 2008, and the board of the Ideas Council. Following her expulsion from the Conservative Senate Caucus in 2013, Wallin identified as an Independent from 2013 to 2016. From 2016 until 2019, Wallin has caucused with the Independent Senators Group. On November 4, 2019, Senator Wallin joined the Canadian Senators Group.

Wallin decided to leave the Conservative caucus on May 17, 2013, until an audit into her expense claims could be completed. On November 5, 2013, the Senate voted to suspend Wallin without pay for the duration of the 41st Canadian Parliament for alleged theft from the public purse. The suspension ended with dissolution of parliament for the 2015 federal election. In 2016 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that criminal charges would not be laid against Wallin over her expenses. She subsequently returned to the Senate in 2015.

Wallin is divorced. She was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2001.

In 1994, her home town of Wadena, Saskatchewan named its major street Pamela Wallin Drive in her honour. In 1999, she was inducted into the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, and in 2007 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2008, Toastmasters International announced that Wallin would be that year's winner of their Golden Gavel award. Wallin has received 13 honorary degrees, including from Athabasca University, the University of Lethbridge and the University of Windsor.