There is no brief held here for the Canadian Senate. It is an anachronism. It serves Canada’s past and has nothing new to offer for its future. It has not grown with the needs of the country. The Senate is but one of the many outdated and unneeded vestiges of Canada’s colonial past. It is long past its ‘best before’ date.
But do not in damning the Senate damn those who have served us well as senators. Yes, many senators have been political hacks, bagmen, organizers, retired MPs and used-up party officials. When searching for talent, you search among those you know.
It brings to mind the late Senator Richard Stanbury. He was appointed to Canada’s Senate by Prime Minister Lester Pearson. He was a Toronto lawyer. He served his community. He helped ensure that it had libraries, hospitals and churches. He was president of the Liberal Party of Canada. He was a devout Presbyterian. He was a person who earned your trust. And he was an intensely loyal friend.
Dick Stanbury spent 30 years in the Senate. He loved the work. He took on the chair of Senate committees and lead trade missions on behalf of Canadian exporters. For those who think the Senate is some kind of sinecure, he could have more than quadrupled his income in the private sector.
And then there is our long-time partner in politics, Senator David Smith. He was there to fill the gap as Liberal Campaign Chair when Alzheimer took away our friend and mentor the late Senator Keith Davey. David falls into ideal situations. It was like when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau gave him the cabinet portfolio for tourism: when we stopped laughing, we had to explain to the Prime Minister that he had just appointed Canada’s most avid tourist. Mind you former Prime Minister Chrètien, who appointed him to the Senate, always razzes him for winning all but one seat in Ontario in the ‘93 election.
But as much as much as some people complained that just another apparatchik had been appointed to the Senate, they did not know David. Some of the most important work he ever did for Canadians was his appointment by Prime Minister Trudeau in 1980 as Chairman of the House of Commons Special Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped. His committee report was not only one of the most readable, engrossing reports ever to come from the Commons but it added important words to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The original concept of the senate was a house of sober second thought to be of assistance to Canada’s law makers. We need to think about ways to provide that in a modern setting. We know we need balance and today’s senate cannot provide that.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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