Meighen is a longtime friend, advisor and fundraiser for former
Progressive Conservative leader and Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney, who appointed Meighen to the Senate in 1990, representing
Ontario. Both he and Mulroney were lawyers at the law firm
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. They also attended law school together at
Université Laval in
Quebec City, along with other prominent Canadian political leaders such as
Lucien Bouchard. In
1972 and again in
1974, he was the Progressive Conservative candidate in the
Montreal riding of
Westmount, losing on both occasions to Liberal
Charles Drury. He served as national president of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1974 to 1977, during which time he oversaw the
1976 leadership convention that chose
Joe Clark to succeed
Robert Stanfield as party leader. More recently, Meighen was the only Conservative senator to vote in favour of
same-sex marriage. He was a member of the Banking Trade and Commerce, National Security & Defense and Fisheries committees. Meighen also chaired the Senate Sub-Committee on Veterans Affairs. Meighen was vice-chair of the Senate Committee on National Defence and Security until February 2007, when the
Prime Minister's Office instructed him and the chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, fellow moderate Tory
Hugh Segal, to resign their positions. Reportedly, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper wished to promote more ideologically conservative senators. Meighen resigned from the Senate on February 6, 2012, shortly before his 73rd birthday (he would have had to take
mandatory retirement on his 75th). ==Legal and other work==