But Harper surprised his Australian hosts when he suggested the Canadian Senate should be abolished if he failed in his attempt to reform it.
“Canadians understand that our Senate, as it stands today, must either change or — like the old upper houses of our provinces — vanish,” he said in his Canberra address.
At the time, Harper’s staffers stressed it marked the first time a Canadian leader had spoken openly about abolishing the Senate.
Harper raised the spectre of abolishing the Senate again this week when he addressed his Conservative caucus over the expense scandal involving senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb. “The Senate status quo is not acceptable,” he said, noting he has already asked the Supreme Court to look at options to abolish the upper house.
For all his talk about abolishing the Senate, though, Harper isn’t serious.
Rather, he wants to “reform” it, turning it into a costly, powerful elected chamber. Indeed, he spent most of this week’s speech bragging about how hard he has worked to reform the Senate, claiming Canadians “are asking us to accelerate those efforts.”
Clearly, Harper sees this Senate “distraction” as a golden opportunity to push his reform package.
That would be a terrible misreading of how Canadians feel about the Senate in the wake of this ongoing scandal. In fact, Canadians are fed up with the Senate and would prefer to see it go away, instead of just seeing more tweaking and “accountability” measures.
In a CBC online poll this week, 62 per cent of respondents wanted to abolish it, 34 per cent said reform it and only 3 per cent said leave it as it is. Other surveys in recent years have shown a steady rise in support for abolition.
To many, the Senate is a joke filled with political appointees who receive a hefty $135,000 salary plus expenses and who don’t have to play by what few rules are in place.
Their frustration has only increased with the current scandal, especially as it relates to Mike Duffy, who loved being dubbed “senator” when he was a high-profile television journalist.
Duffy should resign, but this scandal won’t go away as long as he stays in the Senate. Nor will the increasing calls to abolish the Senate.
Do we need a Senate? No.
Arguments that it is required to protect provincial rights make no sense because MPs and premiers do that job quite nicely. As well, the idea the Senate is needed to provide “sober second thought” to legislation is silly when you realize many countries, including Sweden, New Zealand, Turkey and Denmark, as well as every Canadian province, work quite nicely with just one legislative chamber.
Is it easy to abolish the Senate? No.
Some scholars insist it would be too hard and take too long, given that it requires the approval of seven provinces with at least 50 per cent of the total Canadian population.
But because it might be difficult to do isn’t a reason not to even try. If that attitude existed in previous times, Canada would never have implemented universal health care or patriated our Constitution.
A good place to start with the Senate is to hold a binding national referendum with two simple options: abolish it or reform it. Most of the current premiers would likely favour a referendum and support abolishment. Also, an Angus Reid poll has shown 73 per cent of us favour such a referendum.
Calling for a referendum would be an ideal election issue for NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, given that his party has long advocated abolishing the Senate. The time is right for such a campaign — and the NDP is the right party to lead the drive, seeing both Harper and the Liberals merely want to reform it.
In the end, it could be Mike Duffy, the man who craved a Senate appointment for so long, who ironically became the man who sparked the drive that ultimately kills the Senate.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Bob Hepburn
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