Babel-on-the-Bay is only giving Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau a conditional pass on his proposed Senate solution. The truth is that Trudeau just does not want the constitutional problems that the Stephen Harper or Thomas Mulcair solutions will cause. He is not his father’s son in that regard. Pierre Trudeau was always ready to fight for Canada.
But Justin does not believe that the Senate is worth fighting over. His is an elitist solution but he feels it can solve the problem on a short-term basis. What he wants to do is create a bi-partisan committee to recommend appointments and that future senators can only be appointed on merit and not their service to their political party. It would be as simple as just another level of Officer of the Order of Canada with a small chore thrown in.
Trudeau’s solution neatly sidesteps the constitutional crisis that Stephen Harper would create. Harper has said that he no longer wants to appoint senators. The last time he tried creating a bunch of Senators, he got some bad apples in the lot. No doubt Canadian voters can help him carry out that promise by not re-electing him.
It is Thomas Mulcair who is proposing a Senate solution that simply will not work. It is unrealistic and guarantees a major constitutional wrangle. Mulcair and his New Democrats want to abolish the Senate of Canada. That would be our ultimate solution as well but Mulcair knows he is lying. He knows that Quebec would never allow that to happen without conditions that the rest of Canada probably would not accept.
Your writer once had a good discussion with Justin Trudeau about the idea of a constitutional conference or parliament. While we were not far apart on the objectives of such a constitutional gathering, it was obvious that any of the ideas brought forward would be a long time coming to the national table.
Mind you the possibility of positive change in Canada becomes even more remote if we change how the country votes. Both Mulcair and Trudeau are unhappy with our first-past-the-post voting system. Trudeau is cautious and wants a thorough study of the voting options available to Canadians and there is little problem with that. Mulcair very incautiously wants to go right to proportional voting. He wants a Mixed Member Proportional parliament such as in the Weimar Republic of the 1920s. Considering that both British Columbia and Ontario have voted against somewhat related changes in the past, Mr. Mulcair might just be sticking his neck out a bit too far.
-30-
Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]