Unexpected Senate reform...
Jan. 29th, 2014 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pheloniusfriarIt is not often that a political move surprises anyone these days, so today was a definitely interesting in that regard. The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (don't get me started about Western society's fetishism about dynastic leadership, but that's another post for another day) announced that as of today, all of the senators from the Liberal Party are being kicked out of the party's caucus (inner circle), and will no longer be involved with the operations of the Liberal party going forward (including fundraising and electioneering on behalf of Liberal candidates). What's particularly interesting is that Liberal senators didn't hear about it until about an hour before the press conference announcing the move (they were just as surprised as anyone else, but it was the Liberal Party leader that told them personally before the public announcement was made, so it was not like the found out from the media as to what was going on).
At first blush, it sounded like a whacked out move, but... I think it was a stroke of genius now. The ruling Conservative Party has been engaged in various hamfisted efforts to reform the senate, all of which have failed or floundered due to gross incompetence and/or corruption on the part of the Conservative senators (for the most part, however there are a few Liberal senators that were equally stupid and greedy) and the hidden agenda of turning the Senate into a tool of the Prime Minister's Office to parrot the official government position (in other words, to prevent it from remaining a valuable contributor to Canadian democracy). FYI, in case you didn't know, senators are appointed in Canada by the Prime Minister and sit for life (okay, it's actually the Governor General that legally appoints them, but it is always "on the advice" of the Prime Minister). It is nominally supposed to be the "House of sober second thought" and is meant as a counterbalance to the elected House of Commons that isn't affected by the comings and goings of the "government of the day" (i.e. the party that controls the House of Commons after general elections are held). Unfortunately, the current government has heavily stacked the senate with cronies and sycophants of their choosing (they have appointed 59 senators since they were elected and are going to appoint a bunch more shortly as there are 9 seats currently vacant... there are 105 seats in the Senate, divided between the geographic regions of Canada: 24 each from the Ontario, Quebec, Maritime provinces, and Western provinces regions and the rest divvied up between Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut), and have been applying full party discipline on those senators that were appointed under the Conservative flag, basically subverting the primary purpose of the Senate. It was a problematic institution before, but it is now a completely dysfunctional place these days.
But back to the former Liberal senators... who are now all sitting nominally as independents... the notion put forward is multifold. Firstly, by removing party affiliations within the Senate and placing senators outside of the political party discipline structures, they are free to perform their duties (research, review of laws and treaties, etc.) to the benefit of the Canadians whose region they represent, and for the benefit of all of Canada (presumably). How that actually translates into action is going to be the question (the "proof of the pudding" if you will). Secondly, and this is where this was really clever, it is a reform that can be done without requiring any sort of constitutional changes or approval from the regions in Canada. It was a complete end run around the process being engaged in by the Conservatives to open up Canada's constitution (alienating at least one, if not two of the regions, in the process) and modify it to completely revamp the way senators are placed in the Senate (elections and term limits, presumably as an extension of party campaigns for the House of Commons) and how the Senate operates and what it is allowed to do. The NDP (New Democratic Party, or "Not Destined for Power" depending on who you listen to) really fucked up big time when they decided to differentiate themselves by calling for the outright elimination of the Senate. The problem with democracy in Canada at the moment (this has been moving this way for decades now as technology advances to allow it to happen), is that virtually all the power of the government has been concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office, effectively giving the Prime Minister dictatorial power (or at least monarchic power, in the older sense of the term) with few practical checks and balances other than the notion of an eventual election to contend with. The NDP's plan to kill the Senate would remove one of the few counterbalances that currently exists in Canada to that absolute power (yes, Canada's democracy is broken... it's a bit of a problem at the moment). I wrote them a letter to that effect, but have heard nothing back ;).
So... the leader of the Liberal Party dropped this bombshell on Canada today (so far, for the most part, the reaction has been generally positive outside of tightly controlled politically partisan circles)... and the Conservative government responded by calling him a "poopy head". Okay, they were frothing about it being nothing but a "publicity stunt" and that it was to distance the Liberal Party from ongoing investigations into the finances of senators, but there was no substance to their rhetoric and it was as close to having a tantrum in their sandbox and shouting "Poopy head! Poopy head! Poopy head!" at the Liberal leader as was possible without actually uttering the words. Full disclosure, I'd rather clean all the bathrooms in Toronto's Union Station with my tongue than vote Liberal, so it's not like I'm promoting the party (and I think you have realized I'd rather hang myself than vote Conservative), but I do think it was a brilliant tactical and strategic move that will be remembered for a long time to come (certainly during the next election). Where others are only repeating talking points given to them, this was action that could make a real, immediate, and positive difference to democracy in this country (hopefully the thin edge of the wedge is what we're seeing).
Edit: I had wanted to put a link to an article or something, but the news coverage has been, shall we say, bad (not critical or anything, just incompetent for the most part)... But the day after, there is a little bit more that and some is actually worth sharing. Firstly, here is a link by the former Liberal senators themselves:
New Liberal Senate Caucus
and here is an article from the National Post (a fairly right-leaning publication):
Justin Trudeau kicks all 32 Liberal senators out of caucus in bid for reform
In particular, there are some nice infographics in it, but the clincher is that JT was quoted as saying: "If the Senate serves a purpose at all, it is to act as a check on the extraordinary power of the prime minister and his office, especially in a majority government". If you read back to my criticism of the NDP above, that phrase should sound familiar... well played JT, well played :).
At first blush, it sounded like a whacked out move, but... I think it was a stroke of genius now. The ruling Conservative Party has been engaged in various hamfisted efforts to reform the senate, all of which have failed or floundered due to gross incompetence and/or corruption on the part of the Conservative senators (for the most part, however there are a few Liberal senators that were equally stupid and greedy) and the hidden agenda of turning the Senate into a tool of the Prime Minister's Office to parrot the official government position (in other words, to prevent it from remaining a valuable contributor to Canadian democracy). FYI, in case you didn't know, senators are appointed in Canada by the Prime Minister and sit for life (okay, it's actually the Governor General that legally appoints them, but it is always "on the advice" of the Prime Minister). It is nominally supposed to be the "House of sober second thought" and is meant as a counterbalance to the elected House of Commons that isn't affected by the comings and goings of the "government of the day" (i.e. the party that controls the House of Commons after general elections are held). Unfortunately, the current government has heavily stacked the senate with cronies and sycophants of their choosing (they have appointed 59 senators since they were elected and are going to appoint a bunch more shortly as there are 9 seats currently vacant... there are 105 seats in the Senate, divided between the geographic regions of Canada: 24 each from the Ontario, Quebec, Maritime provinces, and Western provinces regions and the rest divvied up between Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut), and have been applying full party discipline on those senators that were appointed under the Conservative flag, basically subverting the primary purpose of the Senate. It was a problematic institution before, but it is now a completely dysfunctional place these days.
But back to the former Liberal senators... who are now all sitting nominally as independents... the notion put forward is multifold. Firstly, by removing party affiliations within the Senate and placing senators outside of the political party discipline structures, they are free to perform their duties (research, review of laws and treaties, etc.) to the benefit of the Canadians whose region they represent, and for the benefit of all of Canada (presumably). How that actually translates into action is going to be the question (the "proof of the pudding" if you will). Secondly, and this is where this was really clever, it is a reform that can be done without requiring any sort of constitutional changes or approval from the regions in Canada. It was a complete end run around the process being engaged in by the Conservatives to open up Canada's constitution (alienating at least one, if not two of the regions, in the process) and modify it to completely revamp the way senators are placed in the Senate (elections and term limits, presumably as an extension of party campaigns for the House of Commons) and how the Senate operates and what it is allowed to do. The NDP (New Democratic Party, or "Not Destined for Power" depending on who you listen to) really fucked up big time when they decided to differentiate themselves by calling for the outright elimination of the Senate. The problem with democracy in Canada at the moment (this has been moving this way for decades now as technology advances to allow it to happen), is that virtually all the power of the government has been concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office, effectively giving the Prime Minister dictatorial power (or at least monarchic power, in the older sense of the term) with few practical checks and balances other than the notion of an eventual election to contend with. The NDP's plan to kill the Senate would remove one of the few counterbalances that currently exists in Canada to that absolute power (yes, Canada's democracy is broken... it's a bit of a problem at the moment). I wrote them a letter to that effect, but have heard nothing back ;).
So... the leader of the Liberal Party dropped this bombshell on Canada today (so far, for the most part, the reaction has been generally positive outside of tightly controlled politically partisan circles)... and the Conservative government responded by calling him a "poopy head". Okay, they were frothing about it being nothing but a "publicity stunt" and that it was to distance the Liberal Party from ongoing investigations into the finances of senators, but there was no substance to their rhetoric and it was as close to having a tantrum in their sandbox and shouting "Poopy head! Poopy head! Poopy head!" at the Liberal leader as was possible without actually uttering the words. Full disclosure, I'd rather clean all the bathrooms in Toronto's Union Station with my tongue than vote Liberal, so it's not like I'm promoting the party (and I think you have realized I'd rather hang myself than vote Conservative), but I do think it was a brilliant tactical and strategic move that will be remembered for a long time to come (certainly during the next election). Where others are only repeating talking points given to them, this was action that could make a real, immediate, and positive difference to democracy in this country (hopefully the thin edge of the wedge is what we're seeing).
Edit: I had wanted to put a link to an article or something, but the news coverage has been, shall we say, bad (not critical or anything, just incompetent for the most part)... But the day after, there is a little bit more that and some is actually worth sharing. Firstly, here is a link by the former Liberal senators themselves:
New Liberal Senate Caucus
and here is an article from the National Post (a fairly right-leaning publication):
Justin Trudeau kicks all 32 Liberal senators out of caucus in bid for reform
In particular, there are some nice infographics in it, but the clincher is that JT was quoted as saying: "If the Senate serves a purpose at all, it is to act as a check on the extraordinary power of the prime minister and his office, especially in a majority government". If you read back to my criticism of the NDP above, that phrase should sound familiar... well played JT, well played :).
