You wonder what a writer such as Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs) would make of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s most recent elitist appointments to the Senate of Canada. What is really different in this circumstance is that these people are reported to have actually applied to be appointed. It is a strange type of job application where nobody with experience need apply.
Being offered the job of Canadian senator is like winning one of those scratch tickets that are supposedly offering cash for life. In this Senate, you are paid the salary of a member of parliament and quite generous expenses until you are 75-years old. And you do not have to run for re-election every four years. People used to have to prove themselves in politics for a number of years before getting that kind of offer.
And that is the serious problem with Justin Trudeau’s solution to the senate. He intends to fill the senate with political virgins who, he says, wear no visible party colors.
But he is forcing these very lucky people into a serious learning curve that some of them might not be able to handle. They are a mainly apolitical group being thrown into the ring with real politicians. They are supposed to deal with political questions for Canadians. They are supposedly nonpartisan and they have applied for a job where they are required to make what are partisan decisions.
But the Conservatives and New Democrats in Parliament are starting to come to their own conclusions. Looking at the backgrounds of these appointees brings them to the conclusion that most of these backgrounds are mainly of interest to people of a liberal inclination. It is not that they are Liberals in the political sense but they think like many liberals. Justin Trudeau might not have the experience of a jury consultant but he knows the people he likes.
By side-stepping the political vetting process and leaving it to his elite committee, Trudeau is striving for an appearance of a non-partisan selection process. He has failed in the attempt.
There is a simple explanation. If you ever want to see our prime minister scream and run for a place to hide, just suggest to him that we re-open the Canadian Constitution. He has an almost pathological fear of that process. He saw it as his father’s one failing.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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