In Search of a Reformed Senate

In light of Mr. Harper once again appointing a list of cronies and toadies to the Red Chamber, I thought it might be a good time to quickly revisit the topic of Senate Reform.

Stephen Harper has been promising Senate reform for more than four years. To refresh our memories, Mr. Harper wants to have Senators elected for 8 year terms. He has insisted that this does not require a constitutional amendment, and can be handled by some alchemical mix of federal and provincial legislation. The Liberals, and the provinces, all agree that it does require a constitutional amendment, but Mr. Harper has never been on to care about formalities, like, you know, the law.

There are two major problems with Mr Harper's proposals on Senate reform. Well, three actually, but I just dealt with the constitutional issue. The other two issues are: eight year terms and elected Senators.

The Senate is supposed to bring an element of stability to our government, which can find itself turfed on a fairly regular basis in our parliamentary system. The whole idea of having distinguished Canadians appointed for long terms of service to the Senate is to ensure that the constant change of governments don't destabilize the country. Eight year terms just aren't long enough to create this kind of stability. Twelve years would be the absolute minimum term limit, if not fifteen.

The problems with elected Senators are numerous. Perhaps the most significant is that elected senators relegate the Premiers to second class political citizens. Why should the Prime Minister or Cabinet care about Premiers and Provincial Governments when they have elected Provincial representatives just down the hall? Who cares if Danny Williams is against something if elected Senator What's-her-name supports you?

As an aside, does anyone really think that all those Senators Mr. Harper has appointed will step aside after eight years if there isn't a Conservative Government in power at the time? Yep, me neither.

Last year, I posted an entry on my views of Senate reform. I'm not going to rehash my suggestions for change, I don't think my view has changed all that much. But what I find interesting is that Michael Ignatieff talked about his ideas of Senate reform this morning on CTV, and his ideas aren't all that different than mine.

Mr. Ignatieff is suggesting 12 year term limits and an appointments commission (not too dissimilar from the appointments commission Mr. Harper promised for Government agencies and never implemented). The article doesn't say anything about equal Provincial representation, however, and I do think that this is important in any discussion of Senate reform.

Perhaps the most important part of Michael Ignatieff talking about Senate reform this morning is that this is yet another indication that the Liberal Party is serious about presenting a coherent policy platform over the next few months.