James W. Ross
Encyclopedia
James W. Ross, CM
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 (born September 6, 1938) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 businessman and former Canadian Senator
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...

.

Ross was one of eight Senators appointed directly by the Queen on the advice of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

 under Section 26 of the Constitution Act, 1867 in order to pass the Goods and Services Tax
Goods and Services Tax
A goods and services tax or value added tax is a tax on exchanges.By country:*Goods and Services Tax *Goods and Services Tax *Goods and Services Tax *Goods and Services Tax...

. The measure had faced defeat in the Liberal dominated Senate so Mulroney utilized a previously unused constitutional provision in order to allow him to temporarily expand the size of the upper house by a total of eight Senators (two per region) in order to ensure he had enough votes to enact the GST into law.

A businessman by trade, Ross resigned from the Senate in May 1993, after only 972 days, in order to return to public life. At the age of 55, he was entitled to have remained in the Senate for a further 20 years before being forced to retire.

Ross remains active in Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art...

 as a philanthropist and businessman. In 1994, he founded Partners For Youth Inc., a non-profit organization built on a community partnership model that uses adventure-based counseling to help young people.http://alumni.unb.ca/awards/2005awards.html

While most Senators sit as representatives of a province or territory, Ross and the seven other Senators appointed under Section 26 represented regions so Ross and Michael Forrestall
Michael Forrestall
John Michael William Curphey Forrestall was a Canadian Senator and Member of Parliament.A Nova Scotia journalist and businessman, Forrestall was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1965 federal election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Halifax, Nova Scotia...

 sat as a Senators representing the Maritimes rather than a particular province.

In 1999, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

.
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