His guitar gently weeps no longer.

Make that his guitars. Marc Gold has 25 of them. And as of June 30, he returned to his lifelong passion of strumming them. That was the day his time in the Canadian Senate officially came to an end because he reached the age of imposed retirement.

That was also the day the upbeat Gold pronounced: “Life can really begin at 75.”

Gold is a gifted picker, having played in an array of rock, blues, folk and jazz ensembles around Montreal in his early years and, when time permitted, in his later years.

His music days were somewhat curtailed when Gold began teaching law, first at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School — where he later served as an associate dean — and then in his hometown at McGill University’s faculty of law. He had received his undergrad degree at McGill, his law degree from the University of British Columbia and a postgrad law degree from Harvard.

His musical aspirations were further sidetracked when he was appointed to the Senate in 2016 by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and became a member of the Independent Senators Group. Then from January 2025 until his retirement a month ago, Gold was the representative of the government in the Senate, effectively serving as Senate leader. Even though as Gold whimsically puts it: “I had no one really to lead, since there were no Liberal senators, just independent senators as well as a Conservative caucus and three other organized groups not affiliated with any political party.”

Nevertheless, it was Gold, along with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who flanked King Charles when he gave the throne........

© Montreal Gazette