Surely many Canadians are aware of the Prime Minister repeatedly saying that in any business, people who are reputed to have falsified expense reports would have been fired. We should not rush to agree with him. Mr. Harper is comparing Canada’s Senate to a business and he knows that the Senate of Canada is not a business. And it should not be confused with a business.
The Senate was a critical component in the agreement to create this nation. When the Fathers of Confederation envisioned Canada’s Parliament, their role model was the Houses of Parliament of Great Britain. The only problem is that Canada lacked the traditional nobility with which to populate a House of Lords. This was solved with the appointment of esteemed property owners who could provide experience and a house of sober second thought. It was, in effect, a sea anchor capable of keeping the rash, more volatile Commons from running onto the shoals of impetuously passed bills.
And for 146 years, Canada has more or less survived this archaic concept of governance. And most arguments about the Senate have been polite academic dialogues based on more modern ideas of what is the democratic solution. At least until, Stephen Harper came along.
Stephen Harper has made it clear for years that he does not approve of Canada’s Senate. While he would like to see it elected like the American Senate, he would keep it as long as he could control it.
His on-going problem has been controlling it. He thought he had solved that problem by appointing more senators than any previous Prime Minister in Canada’s history. His only problem is that, in the process, he seems to have scraped the bottom of some unusual barrels. And who would have forecast problems with his two favourite prima donnas from CTV News. Here he was getting both cheerleaders for his party and their votes in the Senate.
Stephen Harper had no idea of the level of entitlement that these and others in the Senate felt they had coming to them. After all, Harper is the Prime Minister who routinely flies around the world in his personal A310 Airbus with his personal hairdresser. What does he know from entitlement?
Next week, Canadians will see government lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court of Canada to abolish the Canadian Senate. It could be an interesting but fruitless argument. Any smart Supreme Court justice is going to point to the Canadian Constitution and say, “Fix that first.”
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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