At the time, the Liberals had been in power for almost all of the previous twenty years resulting in a steady decline in the number of Tory senators.
The Leader of the Official Opposition would submit a short list of names from which the Prime Minister would choose an appointee for a vacant Tory Senate seat.
His Senate tenure was also notable for his having introduced a procedural intervention that succeeded in putting an end to the filibuster and the passing of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) bill in late 1990s.
[1] Kelly also served as a director of the Council on Drug Abuse, chairman of the Board of Governors at Ryerson Polytechnic University and co-chairman of a 1984 task force on Crown corporations.
He was a director of numerous national and international companies and financial institutions, governor of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and a commander of the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem (CLJ).