In a decision that surprised no one the Supreme Court of Canada has essentially stated that no fundamental changes to the Senate can be made without the agreement of the provinces. That means no abolition, no changes to a Triple E Senate not even term limits and elected senators without an amendment to the Canadian Constitution, which is not going to happen.
So we are stuck with the Senate in its present form at least until Hell freezes over and the Toronto Maple Leafs win another Stanley Cup.
In an indication of just how shallow and desiccated our politics have become most of the reaction of the media to this news were the political implications of the decision on the Federal scene. Predictably, as I watched the "analysis" last night it shook out along partisan lines so it was pointless. The only interesting point was some statements by Conservative friendly groups demanding a referendum. That bears watching.
Much of the coverage indicated the Stephen Harper had "thrown in the towel" on Senate Reform and my watching of his reaction was they seem to be correct.
Does it really have to be that way?
Although there is no way to fundamentally change the Senate there is still leeway to make substantive changes around the conventions and practices of the Senate that are not covered by the Constitution, and there are a great many of them.
Not to be partisan but Mr. Trudeau did show us some ways of doing just that. Certainly the changes he made were for partisan purposes but they are examples of what can be done within the Constitution.
Could there not be a way of expanding on them?
Here is a thought, there is a broad consensus in this country that the Senate as it is now is broken. Would it be too much to ask for our political leaders to put aside their petty partisan concerns and actually sit down together with some of the more thoughtful Senators to come up with ways to improve the Senate in its current form?
There are many aspects that could be changed. For example:
- Developing a appointment process that reduces or even eliminates patronage.
- Measures to reduce the partisanship of the Senate.
- Mechanisms in place to ensure that Senators, once they are appointed, actually do the job.
The Senate can be substantively changed but it would require true leadership from those who would call themselves our leaders. I wonder if any of them will rise to the challenge.
When the Quebec election began I truly believed that the PQ would win it and most likely a majority government. I even believed that after what was a rather bad first 7 days of the campaign. The reason was simple. I did not believe that Quebecers would elect another Liberal government just 18 months after turfing the scandal ridden Liberal government of Mr. Charest.
Of course this was all before the PQ conducted an election campaign which will appear in political science textbooks as a case study of how NOT to run an election campaign.
I watched some of the coverage on the CBC last night and after all of the drama was sucked out of evening they naturally turned to how this election would impact the federal scene. I do not believe any of them said anything of value on that issue because we just do not know. It was nice for them to speculate but they really did not add much to the understanding of what was happening last night.
About the only thing that can be said with any certainty is that Mr. Trudeau stated awhile ago that Quebecers would reject the Quebec Values Charter and they did. Then again, it could have been they just rejected Madame Marois and the Charter just went down with her.
At any rate Canada and Canadians benefitted the most from last night's results and I really do not care how they might have been politically beneficial to the federal leaders.
