“My sense is if they can find a way it doesn’t become law, they would do that. I think they’ll drag it out as long as they can…for two reasons: one, deep down in their hearts they know it’s a disaster for our Parliamentary system and, secondly, it will create a secondary power base in which the Prime Minister would have to start negotiating with potentially elected people with mandates, and the last thing he wants to do is negotiate with anybody,” said NDP MP David Christopherson (Hamilton Centre, Ont.), his party’s democratic reform critic.
While Mr. Christopherson said the Conservatives don’t want the bill to become law, Alberta Conservative Senator Bert Brown defended the government and blamed the opposition parties for delaying it in the House.
Sen. Brown, Alberta’s second elected Senator, who was appointed by Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) to the Red Chamber in 2007, said he’s been watching the debates on the bill in the House.
“The NDP and Liberals are putting up every MP they’ve got to delay the bill, each MP is entitled to a 20-minute speech and 10 minutes for a Q and A, so the speed is a result of that,” said Sen. Brown.
The bill, which the government introduced on June 21, has been called for debate six times in the House of Commons between September and December. In total, the bill has been debated for approximately 15-and-a-half hours by 46 MPs. Of those MPs, six were Conservatives, including the Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal (Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Alta.), five were Liberals, and 35 were NDP.
Last spring and fall, however, the Conservatives moved time allocation and closure on several other bills which they said were a priority and which they said the opposition also tried to delay. These bills included C-10, the Omnibus Crime Bill; C-20, the Seat Redistribution Bill; C-18, the Wheat Board Bill, and C-13, the Budget Implementation Bill. But amidst this fast tracking, Bill C-7, the Senate Reform Bill, remains at second reading.
The PMO and Mr. Uppal could not be reached for comment.
“The minister welcomes further debate on the bill, and we encourage the opposition to work with us in moving forward with reasonable and necessary Senate Reform as quickly as possible,” said Kate Davis, spokesperson for Mr. Uppal in an email to The Hill Times.
Bill C-7 is a fifth-generation piece of legislation; the first version was introduced in 2006, Bill C-43, the Senate Appointment Consultations Act, was introduced by the Conservative minority government, but only made it as far as second reading before it died on the Order Paper. Senate reform bills introduced in subsequent sittings have met similar fates.
The issue of Senate reform has been a platform feature for the Conservatives since the party came into being, drawing from its Reform Party roots, and was a promise in Mr. Harper’s 2006 election campaign.
While legislation concerning Senate tenure and elections have previously been presented separately, Bill C-7 combines the two issues. And the fate of Bill C-7 will have a deciding role in how the future of Mr. Harper’s seven new Senators plays out.
On Jan. 6, Mr. Harper appointed Ottawa Police Chief Vern White, Betty Unger, JoAnne Buth, former Conservative MP Norman Doyle, Ghislain Maltais, Asha Seth and Jean-Guy Dagenais to the Senate, announced in a press release late on a Friday afternoon.
Mr. White, 52, signed a three-year extension of his contract with the Ottawa police just this summer, so his Senate appointment won’t become effective until Feb. 20, giving the force time to find a replacement. In addition to being well-educated (he’s currently a candidate for a doctorate degree of police Leadership), Mr. White has a strong law-enforcement background: before becoming Ottawa police chief he headed Durham, Ont.’s Regional Police Service and prior to that invested over 20 years with the RCMP, finally departing as assistant commissioner.
Both the Liberals and the Conservatives reportedly approached Mr. White to run in the last provincial and federal election campaigns; and he was also rumoured to be in the running for RCMP commissioner, a position that ultimately went to Bob Paulson. Mr. White will sit as one of two new Ontario Senators.
Ms. Seth fills the second vacant Ontario Senate seat. A Toronto obstetrician and gynecologist, Ms. Seth is the founding president of the NIMDAC Foundation, which supports health-related charities.
Originally from India, Ms. Seth has been actively involved with the St. Joseph’s Health Centre Foundation since completing her training at the centre.
Ms. Unger, who fills the Alberta Senate seat left vacant by recently retired Liberal Senator Tommy Banks, is the first female elected Senator to join the Red Chamber. She was elected as a Senator-in-waiting in the 2004 Alberta provincial election, coming in a close second to Sen. Brown. A registered nurse, Ms. Unger founded a nursing services company called Medico Mobile Ltd. In 2005, Ms. Unger joined forces with Alberta’s Senators-elect to travel across the country and speak about the issue of Red Chamber reform.
Mr. Dagenais’ Senate appointment won’t take effect until he meets the constitutional requirement that Senators own property in the province they represent. A former officer with Quebec’s provincial police force, Mr. Dagenais will be filling one of two empty Quebec Senate seats.
Most recently, Mr. Dagenais ran as a Conservative candidate in the May 2 election, which brought the party to majority status, in the then Bloc Québécois riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot. Mr. Dagenais placed third in the race, losing to NDP candidate Marie-Claude Morin.
Mr. Maltais will fill the second vacant Quebec Senate seat for Shawinigan. A former member of the Quebec National Assembly, Mr. Maltais has been director of the Conservative Party in Quebec since 2009. Prior to this appointment he was taken on as a contractor and consultant for the party.
Mr. Doyle has been appointed to fill the vacant Newfoundland and Labrador Senate seat left vacant by retired Liberal Senator Bill Rompkey. After working in broadcasting and construction, Mr. Doyle was first elected to the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial assembly in 1979. He later joined the House of Commons as the PC MP for St. John’s East, Nfld., in 1997. Mr. Doyle chose not to run in the 2008 federal election and instead stepped down from his seat.
Ms. Buth fills the Manitoba Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of Sharon Carstairs in October. Born in B.C. but raised in Winnipeg, Man., Ms. Buth previously served as president of the Canola Council.
These seven new Senators will bring the Red Chamber to its full, 105-member capacity. To date, Prime Minister Harper has appointed a total of 46 Senators; 42 of whom are currently sitting. There are currently 61 Conservative Senators, 41 Liberal Senators, two independent Senators, one Progressive Conservative Senator in the Red Chamber.
Mr. Harper’s roster of new Senators has drawn reproach from opposition MPs.
“Look at who gets in there and who was picked. I mean organizers, failed candidates, people who donate money to the party—it’s a dumping ground. … These are people put in to be obedient hand puppets for the Prime Minister, and he said he would do things differently,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.), who pointed to Mr. Harper’s previous criticisms of Liberal Senate appointments, Senators that Mr. Angus said he called “political cronies.”
But Tim Powers, vice-president of Summa Strategies, said the new Senators are “high performers in different fields.”
A Conservative majority in the House and Senate suggests that Bill C-7 will, at some point, be passed by Parliament. When that bill comes into effect it will have a retroactive impact on any Senator appointed to the House after Oct. 14, 2008. Senate appointment announcements since October 2008 have included at least a line stating that the appointee has pledged support to the government’s Senate reform efforts.
Assuming Bill C-7 passes with no major amendments, the practice of provincial Senatorial elections would come into place across the country, not just in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as is currently the case. Provinces would use the Senate election results to compile a list of Senate nominees, ordered from most to least votes, which would serve as a selection pool.
For example, if two Senate seats were vacant, the top two nominees on the list would be appointed.
Senators appointed after the 2008 date will be subject to a non-renewable nine-year term limit, the countdown for which would begin on the date the bill receives royal assent. Senators will still be subject to the 75-year age limit, meaning they will be forced to resign when they turn 75 or when their nine-year term runs up, whichever comes first.
The Oct. 14, 2008, cut-off date means the seven new Senators, as well as all but one of the Senators Mr. Harper has appointed during his time at the head of Canada’s government, will be subject to the new limits. Senators appointed before that date will serve until they resign or retire at the age of 75.
In February 2006, Mr. Harper appointed his first Senator, Michael Fortier, who also served as Public Works minister. Mr. Fortier resigned from his position in September 2008 to run in that year’s election, which he lost. Mr. Harper’s second appointment, Sen. Brown, came in 2007. And while Sen. Brown still sits in the Chamber, due to his age he’s already set to retire in March 2013. All other Harper appointments took place after 2008.
The nine-year term limits have sparked some concern that Senators may be reluctant to leave their seats when the time comes. Mr. Powers said if Senators who have agreed to adhere to the plan, as all Senators appointed since 2008 have, “their own reputations are on the line as well as their own commitment to the Prime Minister.”
“If they don’t [leave their seat], they answer accordingly to the court of public opinion,” said Mr. Powers.
In 1965, the government under Lester B. Pearson amended the Constitution to force Senators to retire when they hit the age of 75 instead of having a seat for life.
While constitutional amendments generally require the support of two thirds of the provinces representing at least 50 per cent of the population in order to be passed, the Conservative government argues it is using the same section of the Constitution that Pearson did to change the Senate terms which does not need the provinces’ consent.
Section 44 of the Constitution gives Parliament the exclusive authority to amend the Constitution “in relation to the executive government of Canada, the Senate and the House,” and while exceptions to this clause are listed, Senate tenure is not one of them.
Others argue that provincial referenda are needed, pointing to a 1980 Supreme Court of Canada judgment in the ‘Upper House Reference case’ in which the court found that changes to the Senate that would affect “the fundamental features, or essential characteristics given to the Senate as a means of ensuring regional and provincial representation” could not be made solely by Parliament.
In 2006, a Special Senate Committee on Senate Reform sided with the government’s position that it could unilaterally amend the Constitution, and in the majority view, a reference to the courts wasn’t necessary. When a second bill on the Senate tenure was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, the committee reported it back saying the government should ask for a Supreme Court reference because the Liberal-dominated committee believed lowering the term from age 75 to, at that time, an eight year term constituted a “fundamental” change to the Senate.
The Conservatives have said they will not seek a reference from the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Bill C-7.
Quebec has already promised to mount a court case against the federal government if Bill C-7 passes because the province feels the Senate reforms affect its constitutional rights. Ontario and Nova Scotia, on the other hand, have thrown their support behind the idea of abolishing the Senate, rather than reforming it.
Though new B.C. Premier Christy Clark has said she would prefer the Senate be abolished, she has voiced support for Mr. Harper’s reforms.
New Brunswick Premier David Alward has also come out in support of the Senate reforms and recently said he hopes to present the option of Senatorial elections to his province as early as this year. Alberta and Saskatchewan have already passed legislation to elect Senators.
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
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