Jean-Guy Dagenais

He was appointed to the Senate of Canada on January 17, 2012, by Stephen Harper after losing in the 2011 Canadian federal election running as a Conservative candidate in Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot.

In response to ongoing criticism of the Senate stemming from the Mike Duffy scandal, Dagenais railed against NDP MP Charmaine Borg, in a letter to the House of Commons accusing her of being a whiny, useless puppet who would not have won election if not for sympathy for Jack Layton, and of ignorance of the constitution for her support of the NDP position on abolishing the Senate.

[3] On November 18, 2019, Dagenais announced that he was quitting the Conservative's Senate caucus to join the Canadian Senators Group due to disagreements with the leadership of Andrew Scheer, concerns over the former's social views and the "low importance" attached to Quebec voters by party leadership as the reasons for his defection.

[5] In January 2021, Dagenais was in Florida overseeing "urgent work" on a property he owned, despite public health advice to avoid non-essential international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

In September 2022, Dagenais left the Conservative party shortly after Pierre Poilievre was elected as leader, winning by huge margins, including in Quebec.