Another Tory bill to reform the Senate introduced into a Liberal dominated Senate. Given the latest gun registry stuff, this appears to be the Tories modus operandi when they want to introduce legislation they know is doomed to failure. The lack of cheering you hear from the right side of the blogosphere is the sound of people (Tory hardcores esp.) catching on.
And as for the last bit:
This time, Tories are confident their Senate reform bills will pass because the "institutional resistance" they have faced from Senate Liberals will be replaced next year by an appointed Conservative majority.
Well, its false. The Libs lose their majority next year. The Tories don't get one for another couple of years (2011, I think), so Senate Reform is a non-starter for quite awhile yet.
Wonder if this is a matter of the MSM just getting it wrong or Tory sources feeding them crap in the hopes that their political base is similarly fooled when they read it in the paper.
In any case, my guess would be that, come 2011 or whenever and a Tory Senate majority, Harper and Co. find a reason to support the status quo. They've swallowed their principles often enough to assume it will happen again.
5 comments:
I do support Senate reform. I support an elected Senate and would be willing to support a Triple-E Senate if someone could give me convincing arguments.
I am not willing to support this half-baked Conservative proposal. Also, Harper has not demonstrated a good spirit of democracy since he became prime minister. Why should I support him on his Senate proposal?
I'd support a Triple E Senate if the Conservatives would support PR for the HOC.
I'll support a Triple-E senate if it means the premiers/provinces give up a number of federal rolls.
Our provinces already carry a great deal of power relative to the federal government, are we to simply augment that and give the individual provinces even more power with a Triple-E senate? What's the point of the House of Commons in this new structure?
These are really big questions we have to ask, but the Reformatories simply want to rush in with the populist crap rather than think what the real effect will be on an already very decentralized country. Often times what the 'Tim Hortons crowd' thinks is a good idea often makes for very bad public policy. Frankly, scrapping the senate would be preferable to me than Triple-E + the provinces keeping all the powers they have now.
I'd support a triple-E senate if it meant rep by pop for the House of Commons.
Which of course means several over-represented provinces lose out on their representation, which means it's a complete non-starter.
Do not be suprised if Harper appoints Irwin Cotler to the next senate seat open
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