Better Senate reform and why election or abolition aren’t good for Canada
White Rock, B.C. - Tuesday, February 12, 2013
by:Brian Marlatt
Partisanship, patronage, prime minister making appointments alone - and the threat to Canadian unity if provinces elect Senators - these are the issues surrounding "Senate Reform." Rather than democratic reform, Senate Reform could be the undoing of Canada. Abolition would be no better.
A better solution does exist in Parliament’s own traditions as Progressive Conservative Senator Elaine McCoy indicates. The PC Senator from Alberta asks if today’s prime minsters and party discipline neuters accountability and the Opposition in the Commons, making the Senate a chief defender of democracy if the powers of partisanship and patronage are taken out of the hands of the prime minister. Abolition or electing Senators to be accountable to the provinces does not fix these problems, it just changes them, and puts the children at the head of the table to fight amongst themselves and against Canada. It is the world turned upside down.
Senator McCoy instead suggests a "blue ribbon" panel to nominate senatorial candidates to the Governor General, rather than the PM or by divisive provincial elections.
In fact, such a panel does exist to advise the GG, is non-partisan, across party-lines and levels of government, and it is historic so no constitutional change is needed: the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada.
The Queen’s Privy Council includes present and former prime ministers and cabinet minister, the Chief Justice of Canada and former chief justices, former GG’s, inducted premiers, and other distinguished Canadians. Who better to nominate Senators for All of Canada, not just a province or partisan politicians, including the PM, on the basis of merit and knowledge of public affairs rather than of mere politics.
References:
………Fekete, Jason, Last progressive Conservative senator laments the disappearance of her party’s influence,
……………………….August 7, 2012, Postmedia News
………..McCoy, Senator Elaine, Last best hope for democracy in Canada: An appointed Senate, February 22, 2010, The Toronto Star
………..Stevens, Sinclair, Harper Senate reform undermines democracy and national unity, February 9, 2013, Progressive Canadian Party
……….Government of Canada, The Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, as seen on the web February 12, 2013