Senator Paula Simons Talks Alberta Separatism, Grievance Politics, and Much More
There's a reason why Simons was voted "Most Impactful Speaker in the Senate for 2025" by political website iPolitics
Senator Paula Simons is a delight to interview. Smart, insightful, deeply knowledgeable about Alberta and its fractious politics, she makes a half-hour fly by. This end-of-the-year conversation was no different.
Simons has emerged as one of the Senate’s most respected and effective voices, distinguished by intellectual rigour, independence of mind, and a deep commitment to democratic accountability. Appointed in 2018 after a long career as a journalist and columnist, Simons brings to the Upper Chamber a reporter’s instinct for evidence, clarity, and uncomfortable questions.
In the Senate, she has earned a reputation for doing the work: mastering complex files, reading legislation closely, and grounding her interventions in facts rather than talking points. Her leadership on housing, urban affairs, Indigenous issues, and national security has been marked by seriousness and empathy, especially for Canadians whose lives are shaped by policy choices made far from their communities.
Simons exemplifies what Senate reform was meant to produce: an independent legislator who improves laws, challenges assumptions, and strengthens public trust through transparency and diligence. In an era of political noise, her contribution is substance.
Paula is a key voice that deserves to be heard, as a Senator, an Albertan and an unabashed Canadian. Great interview
I know Paula, and I certainly agree. I would suggest that one of her Alberta predecessors, Tommy Banks, also fits that description. In 2009, the John Howard Society of Alberta hosted a National John Howard Society Staff Conference. Staff from the societies across were in attendance. I arranged for Senator Banks to provide a keynote address. He blew people away with his speech. Pretty well all those from outside of Alberta had never heard of him, and I had more than a few tell me afterward that it was one of the most informative speeches they had ever heard. He sat on the Senate Justice Committee, and whenever criminal justice or corrections legislation came to the Senate, he would call me and ask for the John Howard Society's perspective. As you may recall, during the Harper years, that was pretty frequent when Parliament was sitting, and he always demanded the evidence supporting such legislation (of which there was almost always none) and pointing out when it was, in his view, unconstitutional (of which most usually was).