Why Nancy Greene is a great choice for Senate

A look at some of the blogs today would suggest Nancy Greene is a controversial choice for the Senate. This surprises me — I can’t think of anyone better qualified.

I’ve just finished reading our editorial for tomorrow’s Daily News, which says she is certainly unqualified if political experience is the criterion. On the other hand, she will provide a rude shock for the old fuddy-duddies in Ottawa.

I met Nancy for the first time in 1968, the year she won Olympics gold. She was touring around the province, and attended a reception thrown in her honour in Prince George. She was 25, I was 24, and meeting this world-famous phenom scared the hell out of me.

As I recall that particular day, she was obviously tired from the grind, but was unfailingly cheerful and polite. Cheerful is actually an under-statement when it comes to Nancy Greene. Gregarious, bubbly, straight-forward, these are qualities that have kept her in the limelight and in people’s hearts these many years.

Her special quality, in addition to her outgoing personality, is her candor. It will either sink her in Ottawa, or make her as much a star there as it has on the ski hill. I suspect the latter.

As for Stephen Harper appointing 18 senators when he might not be the government a month from now, that’s another story. But of those 18, Greene is one of his better choices.