Senator Larry Smith elected leader of Senate Conservatives

Senator Larry Smith has been elected the new Leader of the Opposition and the Conservative caucus in the Senate.

Smith defeated Ontario Senator Linda Frum and Nova Scotia Senator Stephen Greene in the Tuesday vote.

Senator David Wells was elected Conservative Senate Caucus Chair.

Smith is the former commissioner of the Canadian Football League and president of the Montreal Allouettes. He was appointed in December 2010 by prime minister Stephen Harper to fill a Senate vacancy in Quebec.

Senate's new Opposition leader on Senate controversies

7 years ago

Duration 7:01

Conservative senator Larry Smith talks about his new job as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

In the federal election later that year, Smith ran for a seat in the House of Commons in a Montreal riding and lost. He sparked some controversy when he lamented the cut in pay he experiencedmoving from the CFLto the Red Chamber.

Smith takes over the Conservative caucus as it navigatesPrime Minister Justin Trudeau'sreforms to the Senate.

Independent Senators became theplurality in the Red Chamberafter theTrudeaugovernment's round of Senate appointments inNovember 2016. Conservatives still have the second-largest bloc of representatives in the upper chamber.

• Tory senator calls Trudeau's appointment process a 'con job'
• Independent senators get office budgets as reform takes hold

Smith introduced anamendment to the Liberal budget bill last November that would have changed the government's middle class tax plan. The move was ruled out of order; it's rare for the unelected Senate to try to modify a spending bill.

Brad Smith, the senator's son and a television personality who has appeared on the Canadian versions of The Bachelor and Chopped, tweeted a congratulatory message for his dad.

Smith replaces Senator Claude Carignan, who left the post at the end of February.

Carignan led the Conservative caucus as government leader in the Senate from 2013 to 2015 and shepherded the caucus through the first two years of Liberal government onthe opposition benches.

He was critical of Trudeau's plan to reform the Senate, though he did co-operate with Senate Liberals to allow non-aligned senators to take seats on committees.