That is the term limit that would have been imposed on senators under the Harper government's original plan to have an elected Senate, which never came to fruition. Thirty other senators named on the advice of Harper are still in the Senate and all but one — Alberta Sen. Scott Tannas — have now been there more than eight years. Announcing her early retirement Monday, Beyak said she stands by her controversial statements on residential schools, which played a role in her being ousted from the Conservative caucus and suspended from the upper chamber. "Some have criticized me for stating that the good, as well as the bad, of residential schools should be recognized. I stand by that statement," she wrote.