Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Senate
Well, it must be the holidays or some other political silly season, we're talking about the Canadian Senate. There are three schools of thought on the senate as far as I can tell. The first, like Mr. Harper was until about a week ago, believe the senate needs desperate reform. The second, like Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, believe it is a waste of time and should be abolished. The third and by far the largest group does its very best to not think about the Senate gets upset when it is brought up in any context and then promptly thinks of England and moves on. Is it unbelievably cynical for a man who claimed he wouldn't appoint senators to appoint 18 of them (that makes 19 appointed and one "elected" appointment by Harper by my count), absolutely? Is it cronyism? Kind of, but every Prime Minister in history has done it given the chance. Does the Liberal Party have a position on the senate? Not that I've heard expressed by any federal politician. I assume Czar Michael the Grit (I swear, I'm trying to get over it... Tous Ensemble and all that jazz) has a position on the Senate, I've just never heard it. I don't expect that or any other constitutional issue (yes Mr. Prime Minister, it is a constitutional issue) will be a subject of discussion in the next election. It's still the economy stupid. Whether there are 87 or 105 senators, the economy is still in recession. That's what Canadians care about.
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4 comments:
Can you imagine Harper and his kin, without a Senate and a majority.....ramrod everything he wanted through parliament, with no one to stop him.
Hi
And best of all MI did not have to say a word
Rex Murphy said it for him
Brilliant
Perhaps now the LIEberals will want Senate reform or get rid of it. Will never happen - the LIEberals will fight hard to have even a suggestion to change it.
If the unholy alliance - that is: LIEberal, Non Democradic and Bloc Party - got in I would guarntee that they will fill it within a week of overthrowing the elected government. Worst of all May would probably get a seat.
I think Harper should leave one seat empty - just to see the infighting within the unholy alliance - should be funny.
Do you think voters really HONESTLY give a rat's ass whether he appoints 18 people to the Senate? Particularly when there's already, gasp, 50 Liberal senators there versus 20 Tory ones?
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