Sober thought, second thought
Not dismayed, not distraught,
In yon Chamber of dignified Red
Where the infamous never shall tread
Keeping Canada sane,
Keeping Canada sane.

Sober thought, second thought,
Can’t be sold, can’t be bought,
Scrutinising the laws of the land,
Passing nothing ad-lib or offhand
Free from partisan strife,
Free from partisan strife.

Sober thought, second thought,
What you’re worth some forgot,
Shield against a repressive decree,
Borne by ancient dignity,
Senate, long may you thrive!
Senate, long may you thrive!

The use of the Senate as a patronage appointment has abased its role, but the concept of a committee of elders taking a view that is longer than the 4 year election cycle or the corporate fiscal year, is more than sound and more necessary today than ever. If we didn’t have it already we’d be wondering how to create a body that can respectfully suggest a longer view, a mroe temperate response to perceived crises. Shouldn’t we be trying to do better than in the past, find a way to temper the fear, anxiety and rash judgment that has led to reactionary attacks on civil liberties and arbitrary mistreatment of unpopular or minorities like the head tax, the Japanese internment, residential schools, Maher Arar?

Isn’t this what Canadians want when they return minority after minority government to office because they are afraid of what one party or another will do?

Call me an idealist, but as the baby boomers pass beyond 65 as a generation it could become popular to rehabilitate the role of elder in our society. Maybe that will create an opportunity to begin to repair and strengthen the Senate. And maybe the concept of “good government” will be in fashion once more, too.

Or maybe I’ve just been hearing too many Christmas Carols while I’m working …

2005 Senate pay raise / year – $2,900 06 – $4,100 07 – $4,600
M.P. pay raise / year – $3,400 ” – $3,100 ” – $4,600
P.M. pay raise/ year – $6,800 ” – $6,200 ” – $9,200

harper tried to save us $1.95 / year / vote so pay raise at end of fiscal 2008 ( economic turmoil) will be very low .

So long as the unelected, appointed Senate is in place, Canada will never have a popularly elected dictator, no matter what kind of provocation provided to us by external or internal forces unless the fundamental nature of Canadians have changed and remain changed for a good many years.

And I advise you to take your own advice. You should read Hansard. I think you’d find yourself quite impressed. These are a bunch of very serious people, who carefully examine bills and legislation with an eye not to what’s popular at the moment, but rather what makes for the best legislation. They don’t succumb to gafflebags, and they don’t tend to let politicians, of any stripe, get away with the behavior patterns of a three year-old that so many seem to exhibit. (Specifically, the “If you didn’t see me do it, you can’t say I did it.” pattern, and the “I’m going to answer the question I want to answer, not what you asked” pattern.)

Now, in the grand scheme of things, a single lost vote in Calgary isn’t going to make a difference. But then again, I don’t know a lot of true blue conservatives in the first place, so perhaps this is telling.

I will grant that some Senators and Senate committees do valuable work. But do we need a glorified think tank in Ottawa?

Finally, the Senate doesn’t pass the ethical smell test. There are too many Senators that continue to serve on boards or represent the interests of their firms in a way that puts them in a conflict of interest when it comes to reviewing legislation.

Finally, sober second thought? Give me a break. Sounds good in theory but honestly just does not work in practice. Just read Hansard and see.

I know many people who did not vote for Harper but I have too much respect for them to think they hate him. I`ll stick with the 5% figure who really hate him—now that figure may be 95% on this blog.

All this ranting and snide remarks and you forget the most important thing—The only Canadians who like the idea that we even have a patronage retirement home called the Senate are those few who directly benefit and those few who hate Harper and anything he does and that`s less then 5% of the voters.
If you think Harper is going to take a hit from this , you`re nuts—-all he has to do is point out that there was 58 Liberals in the Senate to 20 Conservatives—–now why would a group that is in charge of the final approval of Bills have such a discrepancy in numbers with the way Canadians vote now ?
Voters know that Harper wants democratic reform of the Senate—that`s his history from his Reform days when Manning suggested the Triple E Senate. If Liberals thought that the Senate was anything but a dumping ground for old Grit hacks, then they should have proposed some serious improvements—-they would have had an excellent partner in Harper.

I see that Iggy has promised to raise the GST again. Fabulous work that Iggy.

Please. Stop giving us the Tory spin on this.

Harper is the only one blocking reform and trying to ensure the senate does not function as the Constitution requires it to.

The senate reform bill had some serious flaws in it, not the least of which were some serious and legitimate constitutional questions. The Conservatives refused to allow any amendments. The senate wanted to refer the matter to the Supreme Court but Harper would not allow that either. The senate is an important part of a constitutional monarchy and you can’t just ram through poorly thought-through reforms. I never understood the rush. The senate did its job on this and did it well: it reviewed and tried to fix a politically driven and not governance driven bill. Reform the senate? Sure, but let’s put good laws in place.

No bill moved through the senate under Harper any slower than it did under Chretien or Martin. That is a fact.

If Harper would just allow Parliament to meet (which it hasn’t since May) instead of making it dysfunctional with his obstruction manual, cancelling it to hold a promise breaking election, cancelling it to avoid a confidence vote… we might actually be able to get things done. But as Paul Wells so aptly put it, Harper has tried all his life to make government irrelevant and, with him in government, he has finally fulfilled his dream.

Sure, if you parse every single word Harper has ever said you could probably string a few of them together and paint this as a broken promise. But you would have to be a moron not to have seen Harper moving in this direction…he has stated it several times that he would make these appointments if he had to.

Show me a policy document saying “the CPC will never appoint an unelected senator” from the last platform they ran on and I will agree that this is a broken promise.

If Harper feels the best way to reform the senate is to fill vacancies with CPC members, good. I support that.

Once you’re appointed, they can’t do squat to you, so you can do anything you like.

1. The GST cut. Holy grail to a lot of people who don’t understand economics.

2. He promised that we wouldn’t recognize Canada when he’s done with it. So far, he seem to be on course.

Of course, a third one waiting in the wings is Gerry Ritz’ promise that
“When we come back with a majority, all bets are off!”