Justin Trudeau's decision to abolish the Liberal party's Senate caucus is a bold and democratic move. The Senate is supposed to be independent, the best and the brightest, chosen on the basis of their accomplishments and service, to provide 'sober second thought' as a damper to a hyper-partisan and unruly Commons.
Stephen Harper has utterly perverted the Senate. He's the first prime minister in Canadian history to appoint only loyal Conservatives to the upper chamber. He now has it full of his dutiful sock puppets. His manipulation of the Senate was revealed in how the PMO handled the Duffy-Wright affair. In the process Harper, with the obedience of his Senate stooges, has transformed the Senate of Canada into just another partisan political agency of the prime minister's office.
I rarely have much good to say about Margaret's boy but I will give him full marks for this. Who knows, he may surprise me again.
Update: prowling for reaction among the usual suspects it became obvious that the more invested one is with the Liberal Party the greater the likelihood that you object to Trudeau's move. Which leaves me convinced that the Liberal Party is best appreciated when you keep it at arm's length.
6 comments:
First substantive thing I've ever seen him do. I have to hand it to him. And in a silver lining for dippers (which, OK, neither of us really is, but), if he keeps raising his game, it could force Mulcair to do some real things too!
. . . Never mind. I had assumed that what he was doing was cutting the strings between his party and the Senate so that he would be free to advocate strong remedies to the current nature of the Senate.
Nope. His plan is to (pretend to) appoint *nonpartisan* people, instead of overtly Liberal caucus members. Same shit, different plate. It's much like the way the Senate's Liberal caucus didn't suddenly become a bunch of independents when he declared them not in his caucus. The resulting Senate would still be unelected, still be doing graft, still be partisan hacks appointed by partisan Prime Ministers--it's just they'd indulge in a shoddy pretence of not being the last of those three. Pathetic, and very very big-L Canadian Liberal party. Canadians are affronted by all the sleaze going on out in plain sight? Here, we'll put up this ornamental screen so you can pretend not to see it. All better now.
I hope he might prove your cynicism unfounded, PLG. Yet he might indeed prove you right. We'll hAve to see.
I've noticed that the NDP seems to be objecting the loudest. Could it be that these ineffective twatwaffles are pissed because it shows once again that the majority of them are vacuous?
Since the Martin era the Dippers have been fighting the Liberals first and the Conservatives second. Anything like this that eclipses the Dead-eyed Beard gives them the vapours.
This is the one time Harper was telling us the truth about his intentions.
"Despite the fine work of many individual senators, the Upper House remains a dumping ground for the favoured cronies of the prime minister," Harper's leadership website said on Jan. 15, 2004.
But I remember...
Harper promises bill to elect senators
CBC News: Sep 07, 2006
http://bit.ly/1fFfZda
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