Trudeau appoints acclaimed New Brunswick writer to fill Senate vacancy

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says an acclaimed writer will fill a Senate vacancy in New Brunswick.

David Adams Richards was appointed as part of a new merit-based appointment process the prime minister put in place last year.

There are eight remaining vacancies in the 105-seat chamber.

Richards, 66, is an award-winning writer who has won accolades for both fiction and non-fiction. Trudeau says the novelist, essayist, screenwriter and poet has created a body of work that has shown a commitment to the Miramichi River valley in New Brunswick.

Richards was formally appointed by Gov. Gen. David Johnston and will sit as an independent.