Tag Archives: The Senate

Roundup: Hedging the messages

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Justin Trudeau continued his tour of southwestern Ontario over the past couple of days, meeting with local mayors and touring a Ford plant, and so on. But while he was talking about moving away from traditional manufacturing while in London, his stop in Windsor spoke about the need to support the auto sector as a pillar to diversify around, which seems to me to be a fairly big hedge since much of the problem with the auto sector is that it pretty much requires the government to keep feeding the beast with ever larger cash subsidies lest those manufacturers relocate elsewhere, which they generally end up doing anyway, while not enough is being done to transition those communities away from the expectation that they’ll get a decent paying job at the auto plant with a pension and benefits. Also, he needs to stop saying that the government put all of their eggs in the oil basket, because it’s like four percent of GDP, so it’s just not true. Another curious statement Trudeau made was that carbon pricing should be up to the provinces, which seems like a fairly fraught proposition because one can rather easily imagine the headaches that having a patchwork of pricing schemes around the country will create – carbon tax in one province, a technology levy in another, and cap-and-trade in yet another, while the federal government tries to book the overall reductions with no real commonality between them.

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Roundup: Family-friendly has its consequences

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It’s one of those kinds of piece that rolls around every few months, and Laura Payton has again taken a look at the toll to family life that an MP’s job takes, especially as several MPs have opted not to run again, citing that very reason. And that’s well and good, but the moment we get to talking about making Parliament more “family friendly,” we immediately start talking about things without acknowledging any of the very detrimental unintended consequences. Beyond better access to childcare on the Hill for MPs (as opposed to staffers), they immediately start talking about things like cancelling Friday sittings, electronic votes, and attending committees by video conference – all of which are actually terrible ideas. Losing Fridays would mean having to make up the time somewhere else, and since we’ve already cancelled evening sittings to make Parliament more “family friendly,” well, that’s out, and let’s face it – nobody wants to sit in July or August because Ottawa is pretty humid and gross – especially in some of those old stone buildings that aren’t very well air conditioned, never mind that MPs generally want to be on the barbecue circuit or spending time with said families now that their children are out of school. Electronic voting is also a bad idea because half of the point of Parliaments are the very important symbolism of having your representatives stand and be seen to be standing for what they believe in. An electronic tally may be more convenient, but it also damages the meaning of the act. The other reason why it’s terrible is because that’s one of the few times that MPs are all together in one place and can see each other and make contacts, whether that means cornering a minister about an issue that they need to have addressed, or simply building relationships. It’s the same with attending committee by video conference. You’re not forming those relationships either with fellow MPs, or with any of the witnesses appearing before you, and even while some witnesses to appear by video conference, that face-to-face contact and the conversations in the hallway afterward are all lost. Those are tremendously important. There are other ways for MPs to better schedule themselves, but already the parliamentary calendar has changed a lot to accommodate families and travel. The loss of evening sittings had a demonstrable impact on collegiality because MPs no longer ate dinner together. Losing more of that contact will have a crippling blow on the institution.

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Roundup: An unconstitutional promise

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Over in the francophone media, Thomas Mulcair has been talking about his promise to never ever appoint senators ever if he were to become PM and form government. Of course, that kind of talk is beyond ridiculous and is in direct contravention to the constitution – the same sections that the Supreme Court gave a whole lot of clarity on in the recent Senate reference decision. Mulcair claims he would try to push the provinces to abolish the institution, but good luck with that – all of which tends to put a lot of doubt into just how seriously Mulcair would take is constitutional obligations should he ever assume the position. The interview did give rise to this post, which speculated on the conditions by which a Governor General might reasonably start appointing senators without waiting for advice from the PM, if said PM was obstinately refusing to put forward names for appointment. While we are going to start hearing from the courts on this matter sooner than later, with an active challenge now underway in BC, I’d have to agree with both Emmett Macfarlane and Philippe Lagassé on this one – having the GG make direct appointments would put us into a constitutional crisis because it would violate the principles of Responsible Government, but said GG could also note that the PM was refusing to act within his or her constitutional duties, and dismiss them, inviting someone else to form government instead. It would still be a bit of a crisis, mind you, and there would be all manner of wailing and gnashing of teeth in the media about it, but it would be much more in line with the principles of Responsible Government than making the appointments without advice. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t come to that, and that our current and future prime ministers start taking their jobs of making these appointments far more seriously.

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Roundup: Strong feelings following defections

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In the wake of fairly stunning defections in both the federal NDP and the Wildrose party in Alberta are leaving a lot of hurt, angry and shaken people in their wake. With Glenn Thibeault leaving the federal NDP, his old riding association president says she feels like their work has been diminished, and a number of Thibeault’s former caucus colleagues say they’re feeling “hurt” by the departure. Over in Alberta, the Wildrose Party’s president has stepped down and a past president stepped into his place for the time being, and they insist they’re not defeated. I’m sure it will be a question as to how they decide to move forward, and what kind of leadership process they put in place in order to try and staunch the haemorrhaging that they’re feeling at present. Someone suggested that it’s something that Rob Anders could take on seeing as he’s been defeated in his quest for federal re-nomination twice, but still insists he wants to get that small-c conservative message about lower taxes out there. Then again, Alberta may be getting too liberal for Anders, which is what he blamed his lost nominations on. For many federal Conservatives, it’s more of a feeling of relief, no longer having their voter base split provincially (though how long said unity lasts is a question). The most incredible reaction to date, however, was NDP MP Linda Duncan, whose riding is in Edmonton, when she said that people in the province may be so disgusted that they’ll consider the NDP instead. I think this reaction says it best:

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Roundup: A surprising defection

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The NDP have lost another MP, but this time the defection is very surprising. Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault has decided to leave federal politics and run for the provincial Liberals in that riding. Thibeault said that it was a long decision making process, and that he felt the Liberals’ plans for the region were something he felt strongly about, but then he hinted to CBC Sudbury that he was not seeing eye-to-eye with the federal NDP, and that’s when the warning lights go off – especially because Thibeault was caucus chair until a couple of weeks ago. He wouldn’t elaborate on that fact when later asked about it on Power & Politics, but it is still a big klaxon that all is not as it seems in the NDP caucus. Remember this is the caucus that is always united and solidarity in all things. When cracks form below the surface, it’s always a bit of interesting Kremlinology, and while clues may be hard to come by as to what the divisions are, the fact that they are present does add more grains of salt to the constant assurances that the party has never been more united – a phrase they trot out every time they lose another MP.

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Senate QP: Youth voting and Santa

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The final sitting day of 2014, and the Senate’s Routine Proceedings carried on quickly after a number of very sad and tearful statements about topics like the attack in Peshawar and a suicide that highlighted the need for assisted suicide laws. And then it was time for Question Period.

Senator Eggleton led off, asking on behalf of an Ottawa resident who wanted to know what the government is doing to help encourage youth vote. Senator Carignan praised the Fair Elections Act, and said that it would increase voter turnout. Eggleton pointed out that the law limited the kinds of education outreach that Elections Canada could engage in, and wondered how that made things better. Carignan insisted that it was the role of parties to engage people on the basis of ideas.

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Roundup: Challenging the empty seats

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A Vancouver lawyer has decided to launch a constitutional challenge about the fact that the Prime Minister has refused to fill the 16 vacant seats that are currently in the Senate, and it’s about time. In some provinces, half of their allotted seats are vacant, which has a real impact on their representation, all because Harper is both smarting from his string of poor appointments in 2008 when he elevated Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau to the chamber, but also because he’s petulant and is pouting after the Supreme Court gave him and his reform proposals a black eye (and with very good reason). And because of the pace at which justice unfortunately moves in this country, this challenge may not even be heard until after the next election happens, and a new government may be in place that will actually make appointments – imagine that! But either way, it would ne nice to get some kind of jurisprudence on the record, so that if other future prime ministers decide to be cute and not make appointments, there will be some common law in existence to show how it’s a constitutional obligation and not an option.

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Senate QP: 200 or 2000 Syrians?

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It was a late Monday evening sitting, part of the final push to get things though before breaking for the Christmas holiday. Once again, Routine Proceedings sped through to get to Question Period, so much so that it caught the lead Senator for the day off-guard, as she was conversing with a Senator on the other side of the Chamber.

Once she rushed back to her desk, Senator Jaffer asked about the low numbers of Syrian refugees that have been brought to Canada. Senator Carignan, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, insisted that Canada has offered protected to all kinds of Syrians. Jaffer asked about the fact that only 200 have come over, but Carignan insisted that it was closer to 2000 — 1900 to date. Jaffer disputed that figure, before noting that she was recently in Turkey to visit the camps there, and wondered what more Canada was doing, but before Carignan had a chance to reply, they had to break to ring the bells for a scheduled vote.

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Senate QP: Solitary confinement under scrutiny

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The Senate was sitting early on a Friday morning as part of the final push to get the last of the bills that need to be passed done so before they rise for the Christmas break. Routine proceedings in the Chamber proceeded swiftly, and Question Period began early.

Senator Cordy led off, asking about an issue of a specific home care case in Alberta that she had raised with the leader of the government in the Senate weeks ago and had not yet heard a response to. Senator Carignan, who answers on behalf of the government, noted that he had raised the issue with Ministers Kenney or Alexander. Cordy updated the file with issue of work permits for a caregiver who was already in the country as a temporary foreign worker, but whose paperwork was being delayed for several more weeks. Carignan asked Cordy to have the woman in question send a letter directly, so that he could follow up with the ministers directly. Cordy noted that the woman in question has tried already and had no response, nor from her MP who insisted that nothing could be expedited, but would forward all of her correspondence to him in the next few minutes.

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Roundup: Refusing to appoint senators

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Stephen Harper says that he’s in no rush to appoint senators because legislation is still getting passed, so no big deal, right? The question arose because the new Senate Speaker, Pierre-Claude Nolin, remarked that there are concerns about regional representation becoming unbalanced, and I’ve heard from other Conservative senators who are not-so-quietly complaining that they are being overloaded with committee work because they’re having to sit on several committees given that we’re soon to be at seventeen vacancies – almost one-fifth of the Chamber. It’s a significant figure, and the added danger is that a Prime Minister – either Harper, or a new one post-2015 – would appoint a big number at once, stressing a system that is designed to absorb two or three new ones at a time. It also demonstrates a kind of contempt that Harper is showing toward the system and the specific role that the Senate plays within it, preferring instead to treat it as a rubber stamp that he is ramming legislation through. Nolin pointed to several passages from the Supreme Court’s reference decision during his presentation, and noted one of the roles of the Senate is to provide reflection to legislation that passed the Commons in haste. In this era of time allocation, that would seem to be more needed than ever – and yet, the government’s senators are doing their own best to rush things through, which Nolin quite blatantly called out today, saying that he aims to remind all Senators of their obligations as laid out in that decision. Nolin also said that he thinks the worst of the Senate’s spending woes are behind it, as we wait for the AG’s report next spring, and offered his own take on what happened on October 22nd.

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