OTTAWA - A newly appointed judge's speedy transition from active politics to the bench is raising questions about politicization of the judiciary under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Brian Abrams was among a raft of judicial appointments announced last Friday by Harper's government.

He was named to the family division of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice less than two months after resigning as the federal Conservative candidate in Kingston.

Abrams was not the only Friday appointee with connections to the governing party.

Lawrence O'Neil, a Tory MP from 1984-88, was named associate chief justice of the family division of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and two other newly appointed judges -- William Burnett in Manitoba and Christopher Bondy in Windsor, Ont. -- have donated to the Tories in the past.

The Liberals say the Harper government has appointed 39 judges with Tory ties since the 2008 election.

Liberals rewarded their own partisans with judicial appointments when they were in power -- a practice Harper used to rail against.

But Liberal MP Geoff Regan said Abrams' appointment sets a new standard for blatant partisanship.

"I think Canadians will find it disturbing that someone can be a Conservative candidate in December and sitting on the bench in February," Regan said in an interview.

"This raises serious questions about the government's integrity and how far it's willing to go to bend the rules."

Abrams ran against Commons Speaker Peter Milliken in the last election, coming within 4,000 votes of knocking off the veteran Liberal. He had been nominated to run again for the Tories in the next election.

When he announced his resignation as a candidate on Dec. 18, Abrams cited the pressures of his law practice, family considerations and his commitments to a family band.

But Regan says he finds it hard to believe Abrams didn't know he was about to be appointed to the bench.

"This obviously stretches credulity. I'm sorry but that's awfully hard to accept."

Regan questioned whether the Tories offered Abrams the appointment to "get him out of the way" for a better candidate in Kingston, which Conservative strategists believe is ripe for the picking in the next election.

"It does raise that question, that's for sure."

The riding became a prime Tory target last summer, when Milliken, who's held the riding since 1988, announced he wouldn't seek re-election. Since Abrams' resignation, two contenders -- auctioneer Alicia Gordon and naval reserve officer Richard Moller -- have entered the race to carry the Tory banner.

Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal, Abrams' political mentor, scoffed at the idea his party wanted Abrams out of the way. To the contrary, he said Abrams was considered a dream candidate and the Kingston Tory association was "stunned and heartbroken" when he resigned.

Segal said the decision was motivated purely by Abrams' realization that he couldn't devote the kind of "24-7" work required to finally break the Liberal hold on the riding.

Segal said Abrams, a former RCMP officer who has worked with troubled youth, is a natural choice for family court judge.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson also defended Abrams' appointment, pointing out that all judicial appointees are vetted by judicial advisory committees that include representatives of the Canadian Bar Association, law societies and provincial and federal governments.

However, the Harper government has also been accused in the past by prominent members of the legal community, including a former Supreme Court justice, of politicizing this vetting process.

The government has changed the rules so that federally appointed representatives now make up a majority on the advisory committees. It has added police representatives and, according to some reports, has ensured that at least half the non-police members have Tory ties.

Harper fuelled the accusations of politicization in 2007 when he frankly admitted selecting judges who share his government's tough-on-crime agenda.

Nicholson shrugged off suggestions Abrams' speedy move from politics to the bench is unseemly.

"I'm not sure what you mean in terms of quick," he said.

"I mean, a person can serve in many different ways and many different backgrounds. The individual is qualified and I think will be a credit to the bench."