Liberal cabinet minister Dan Vandal criticizes senate appointment of broadcaster Charles Adler

The lone Manitoba member of Justin Trudeau's cabinet is less than enthused with the appointment of broadcaster Charles Adler to the Canadian Senate.

On Saturday, the prime minister's office announced the senate appointments of Adler and Saskatchewan health-care executive Tracy Muggli. The governor general makes the appointments on the advice of the prime minister.

Saint Boniface-Saint Vital Liberal MP Dan Vandal — whose cabinet responsibilities include northern affairs, Prairies Economic Development Canada and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency — issued a short statement critical of the Adler appointment.

«There are many eminently qualified Manitobans who are better suited to represent our province than Charles Adler,» Vandal said Monday in a statement.

Vandal served as a city councillor and also ran for mayor of Winnipeg when Adler worked as a talk radio host in the Manitoba capital. The MP's office said he would not comment further on the senate appointment.

Reached by phone in Winnipeg, Adler said he agrees with Vandal.

«Theoretically, without seeing all these names he must be thinking of, if he says that there are people in Manitoba more qualified than your truly to be in the Senate, he's probably right,» Adler said in an interview.

Manitoba's population is approximately 1.5 million.

Winnipeg South Centre MP Ben Carr declined to comment on Adler's appointment, while Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid and Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux did not immediately respond to queries from CBC News.

Adler will serve alongside five other Manitoba senators. Their ranks include one Conservative, one member of the centrist Canadian Senators Group and three unaffiliated senators.

Sen. Marilou McPhedran, who was appointed just