But, even though only 14 per cent of respondents said the Senate should be left as it is, the Forum Research survey suggests if Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) succeeds in his Supreme Court of Canada quest to take incremental steps toward an elected Senate, the political turmoil could be significant.
The survey of 1,091 voting age Canadians on Feb. 7, found 40 per cent of respondents favoured an elected Senate, with an outright majority only in Alberta, where 55 per cent said they supported the idea.
A full 31 per cent across Canada said they want the Senate to be abolished, a longstanding NDP position that—depending on the result of Mr. Harper’s request last week for an opinion on constitutional questions about Senate reform from the Supreme Court—could be impossible.
The federal government believes abolition would require unanimous agreement from all 10 provinces and the abolition option was included in the government’s Supreme Court reference to flush out the NDP, a Conservative said to The Hill Times this week.
The reference was filed in the Supreme Court in the late afternoon of Feb. 1, by Justice Department lawyers representing Justice Minister Rob Nicholson (Niagara Falls, Ont.) in his capacity as Attorney General on behalf of the government.
The Forum Research poll, an interactive voice response telephone survey with a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent 19 times out of 20, found opinion about the Senate had not changed even one percentage point from an identical poll Forum Research conducted in January, 2012.
“While the appetite for Senate reform is not overwhelming, it exceeds the interest in abolition, so we may have the Red Chamber to kick around for a while longer,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff told The Hill Times.
The survey was taken on the same day that CTV reported Quebec Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau had used his father’s address on a First Nation reserve north of Ottawa in Quebec to claim an aboriginal income tax exemption from 2004 to 2008, when he led a national lobby group for aboriginal Canadians living off of federal reserves. CTV had earlier reported questions about Sen. Brazeau’s claims for $21,000 a year in Senate travel expenses, including accommodation, while in Ottawa. CTV cited documents from a Revenue Quebec order forcing Brazeau to pay more than $4,000 in arrears for child support.
On Thursday morning, shocking news emerged that Sen. Brazeau had been arrested after a 911 domestic violence call at a house in Gatineau, Que. He was held in jail overnight and charged with sexual assault and assault early Friday and is scheduled to appear in court again on March 22.
Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy, another star Senate appointment by Mr. Harper, is also in hot water over his claims for travel allowances while in Ottawa. Sen. Duffy, who represents Prince Edward Island and owns what has been described as a cottage near the tourist mecca of Cavendish, P.E.I., recently asked the P.E.I. provincial government to expedite his request for a provincial health card as he, Sen. Brazeau and Ottawa Liberal Sen. Mac Harb came under Senate scrutiny for evidence of their primary residences. P.E.I. media have reported Mr. Duffy is paying lower seasonal property taxes on his Cavendish property that do not cover full year-round garbage collection services.
Despite more than a month of intermittent but sensational news coverage of the Senators, Liberal MP Roger Cuzner (Cape Breton-Canso, N.S.) was cautious when, during a news scrum after Question Period on Friday, he was asked whether it was time to reform the Senate or abolish it.
“Next question,” Mr. Cuzner quipped after at first being asked whether he favoured abolition, a prospect that P.E.I. university professor Peter McKenna told The Hill Times this week would be “toxic” in Atlantic Canada, which has 30 Senate seats, and would divide the country along regional lines.
The Senate has 105 seats compared to the 308 House of Commons seats, with 24 Senate seats divided equally between B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which combined have a population of 10.2 million compared to the population of 2.3 million in the four Atlantic Canadian provinces.
Quebec and Ontario each have 24 Senate seats, while the three northern territories have one seat each.
With those numbers by region, critics say an elected Senate with the same powers as the current unelected Senate would dramatically shift the balance of power in Ottawa and lead to inevitable impasse. A report this week quoted Conservative Senator Bert Brown saying Mr. Harper was considering a further constitutional amendment to reign in Senate powers for blocking Commons bills, but Kate Davis, communications director for Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal (Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Alta.) told The Hill Times the report “does not accurately reflect the views of the government.”
“The path forward is the reference to the Supreme Court, and a term-limited Senate selected through democratic processes,” Ms. Davis said in an email.
On the recent Senate controversy, Mr. Cuzner said: “There is a certain degree of it where they have to govern themselves as well. Anybody who has been around this place long enough, they understand that there’s all kinds of quality work that the Senate performs and has done over the years.”
Mr. Cuzner said the Senate serves a “great role” and that there are only “one or two bad apples” that emerge every few years.
“This has been an epidemic it seems, of late,” he said. “I continue to think there is a role for the Senate, but they certainly haven’t done themselves any favour with the actions of these three or four Senators.”
The Forum Research poll found support for an elected Senate was highest among respondents aged 35 to 44, at 45 per cent, and preference for abolition highest among those aged over 55, at an average of 38 per cent.
By region and province, Atlantic Canadians were evenly split at 35 per cent for an elected Senate and abolition. Quebec also was evenly divided with 33 per cent in favour of an elected chamber and 32 per cent supporting abolition.
In Ontario, 39 per cent of respondents favoured an elected Senate, compared to 31 per cent who wanted it abolished.
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, old NDP heartlands, 40 per cent were in favour of abolition and only 33 per cent supported an elected Senate. In Alberta, with the majority in favour of an elected Senate, only 25 per cent favoured abolition. Opinion was similar in B.C., where 45 per cent of respondents wanted an elected Senate and 27 per cent were in favour of abolition.
Quebec had the highest support for leaving the Senate as it is, at 19 per cent.
The government has asked the Supreme Court for an opinion on whether Parliament has the constitutional authority to pass legislation enabling the federal government to consult voters in each province, often called a consultative election or nominee election, for nominees to fill vacant Senate seats in their provinces. The government also asked the Supreme Court whether Parliament has the authority to establish a framework for provinces to pass their own legislation allowing consultative elections for nominees to fill Senate vacancies, as Alberta has done since 1987.
The prime minister now nominates Senate appointees for approval by Cabinet and the Governor General or the Queen.
The government also asked whether Parliament has the constitutional authority to limit Senate terms, in a range from eight to 10 years or for two or three Parliaments, eliminate a $4,000 property requirement for Senate appointments, and whether abolition of the Senate could be done with the consent of Parliament, including the Senate, and seven provinces that include more than 50 per cent of Canada’s population.
If that amending formula, set out in the Constitution Act for major changes to the constitution, is not sufficient to abolish the Senate, the government asked whether unanimous agreement is required.
Experts have said the Supreme Court could take between 18 and 24 months to render an opinion, which would mean either 2014 or 2015, the next federal election year under fixed-election law introduced by Mr. Harper’s government.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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