Ideals
compared to reality on the ground. A few interesting points. The
conservative party was constrained by a minority parliament, then after
an election and winning a majority, by the senate stacked with Liberals.
So, gradually he began appointing
senators so that they held a majority in both houses. This is
necessary to advance the Government agenda. Because when the opposition
holds a majority a bill suddenly becomes needing "extra thought" in a
stall tactic that goes back to confederation. If you want to get
anything done, you stack the senate.
However at this point, Harper's
senate reform was to promise to appoint any Senator elected
democratically. This was first tried by Brian Mulroney. Who appointed
one senator elected in Alberta. Mr. Harper has appointed 4. This could
have been an amazing reform had it caught on. It required the
cooperation of the provinces. No other PM in history had tried so hard
to bring senate reform.
To do any more than this requires a
constitutional change. Which many Canadians do not appreciate is an
enormous nightmare. Once the constitution is opened up, everyone will
want to table some change or other to every other part of the
constitution. After Meech Lake, no politician wants to spend that much
political capital, BC for example would want more seats. (Where PEI has
one seat per <35 a="" among="" an="" are="" banished="" bc="" be="" belief="" can="" cannot="" deceived="" deceiving.="" doing="" done="" either="" ever.="" example="" fairytale="" fell="" for="" has="" is="" it="" myriad="" nbsp="" of="" one="" only="" or="" others.="" people="" per="" problem="" realize="" reflection="" seat="" senate="" so="" some="" span="" suggest="" swoop="" that="" the="" there="" they="" this="" those="" while="" who="" with="">
Finally the Duffy thing. Using the old format of making
senate positions political appointees, here we see an example of where
that can go wrong. At the time of his appointment most pundits thought
his appointment was a stroke of genius. Mr Duffy's and Pamela Wallen's
status as well educated media personnel, opened perhaps for the first
time, senate appointments from the 5th estate. It marked an advance for
a perceived stodgy old house to the 21st century. The discovery of his
alleged wrong doing left him kicked out of the party. And now he is
having his day in court.
It remains to be seen how much goop will stick
to the Prime Minister. This is the problem with appointed senators.
The prime minister is perpetually tied to the decision. In the Case of the
Liberals, there were so many bug bears under their bed, Trudeau
dissolved the Liberal caucus all together in the hope non of the goop
would stick to him. It remains to be seen how effective a strategy that
is. Currently, Mr. Harper has stopped appointing senators. There are
18 vacancies with no indications of any of those seats being filled with
an election coming up...
