Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Re: Kill The Senate?

BACK OFF GOVERNMENT!: Kill The Senate?: "NDP Pat Martin's plan to kill the senate: “ We may not be able to abolish the Senate by constitutional amendment, but we can cut off its bl..."

Secondly, this isn't that bad of an idea for the Tories. So long as the senate refuses to pass reform legislation we can say "fine, we'll cut the taps off."
I would point out to the author that Mr. Harper did start to cut the taps off... not through adjusting salaries which most assuredly would have to go through the Parliament, but by merely not appointing Senators to the chamber. In fact, I suspect that's his plan after the last round of appointments.

In the last appointments, Mr. Harper filled 3 out of 4 vacancies. He never stated why he didn't fill that fourth vacancy, but as others including myself have pointed out - he doesn't need that fourth senator to maintain a plurality if not a majority throughout the next 4.5 years of government. I don't think Mr. Harper plans to fill any more vacancies until he has honestly attempted to get a reform bill through the Senate.

The problem is that the Senators themselves (mostly Liberals) decried the tactic the last time he tried it. They even went so far as to attempt to push a bill through that requested that the Governor General appoint Senators without the advice of the Prime Minister.

Nope, if I were the Senators, I would make minor adjustments to the bill - like amending it to add more years to the term limit, but I would let it pass. There are just some positions that are indefensible.

2 comments:

  1. Martin is a bloody hypocrite! If a couple of dozen Senators were NDP'ers,there wouldn't be a mention of reform or abolition.

    The old saying," you might just get what you wish for" is appropriate here, abolish the Senate,and the Government then has a virtual dictatorship,with no checks or balances whatsoever.

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  2. After seeing what might have passed without a Senate, I would fear its abolition. Having said that, I don't think that there's anything wrong with making it more indicative of the population's political mood with a slight lag, than to have Senators sitting in the Senate who have been there for 30 or more years.

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