This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 1:17 PM - 12 Comments

The House debated Libya and the meaning of regime change. The opposition demanded to hear from the President of the Treasury Board. Charlie Angus mocked Tony Clement. Then mocked him again. And again.

Jack Layton took his place in Twitter history. A former Liberal MP worried that Parliament wasn’t serving Canadians well. Ruth Ellen Brosseau was applauded. Elizabeth May dissented. Mr. Clement looked on the bright side and clarified what he meant by “anachronistic” and dismissed what he’d said about user fees. The ethics commissioner suggested a code of conduct for MPs. Peter Stoffer proposed a ban on floor crossing. The youngest MP in history made his maiden remarks. Continue…

Sober second thoughts

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 9:15 AM - 9 Comments

Senators appointed by Stephen Harper with the expressed purpose of pushing through his reforms apparently aren’t entirely supportive of his proposals. And so Bert Brown, the nominally elected senator, steps in to remind his caucus mates to whom they should be absolutely loyal.

“Those of us who came to the red chamber were there to get a majority vote for reform. Those in the Senate before Harper became prime minister need to realize that, had he not made appointments, the Conservatives appointed by Mulroney would now be a very small group struggling to do anything!” Brown wrote in an email to all Conservative senators.

“Every senator in this caucus needs to decide where their loyalty should be and must be. The answer is simple; our loyalty is to the man who brought us here, the man who has wanted Senate reform since he entered politics, the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper,” Brown wrote.

To reform the Senate: Why term limits?

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 3:36 PM - 35 Comments

Let’s set aside, for now, the inherent ridiculousness of Bert Brown chiding fellow Conservative members of the Senate — intended as a chamber of sober second thought, and at least nominally a check on the House of Commons — for their lack of loyalty to the prime minister.  Here’s something I’ve never really understood about Harper’s bid to implement a term limit of eight (now nine) years for appointed Senators:

What problem with how the Senate is currently constituted and functions is this designed to solve?

Senate reform goes centre stage

By Colby Cosh - Monday, June 13, 2011 at 10:35 AM - 12 Comments

Sean Kilpatrick/CP

Last week’s Throne Speech was expected to be bereft of surprises. As it happened, a cranky Senate page with a handmade sign ensured that the event wasn’t a complete bore. But there was another, subtler eyebrow-raiser in the works. Despite prior reports of Conservative caucus dissension over Senate reform, Governor General David Johnston’s scripted words expressed the Prime Minister’s determination to act fast on it. Reform “remains a priority for our government,” Johnston reported, promising to reintroduce legislation—thwarted by weighty Oppositions in the past—“to limit term lengths and to encourage provinces and territories to hold elections for Senate nominees.”

The Conservative plan to tweak the Senate without opening up a politically unthinkable Constitution-amending process seems about to take its long-awaited first step. And that implies a reignition of the debate over whether a prime minister can actually get away with such a thing. Quebec’s government is already threatening to haul the feds before the Supreme Court to block term-limit and Senate-election legislation. “If they try that, the Court is literally going to laugh at them,” says a confident Sen. Bert Brown, the Conservative reform advocate elected as an Alberta “senator-in-waiting” in 2004 and appointed to the upper house in 2007.

Constitutional scholars are unsure whether Brown is right. The government’s theory is that there is no “manifest conflict”—to use the phrase of Simon Fraser University political scientist Andrew Heard—between Senate elections and the text of the Constitution. The Constitution merely says that the governor general will “summon qualified persons to the Senate”; it does not say Parliament cannot invent new methods of making candidates available for his consideration.

Continue…

The Commons: Humble brag

By Erica Alini - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 11:14 PM - 18 Comments

Across the street and behind a metal barricade, a young man in a bike helmet, holding a pink sign that read “contempt,” was yelling at Conservative delegates as they filed into the giant glass orb that is the Ottawa convention centre. He yelled about the G8 and the $50 million. He yelled about Bev Oda. He yelled about the defeated candidates now in the Senate. He yelled the word “mockery” more than a few times. Most of the delegates ignored him. Some smiled and laughed and waved.

The man in the bike helmet was eventually joined by about 300 others waving various signs for various reasons. “Beat Back The Tory Attack On Reproductive Justice,” read one. “Whither Joe Clark,” read another. The noisy gathering eventually settled on a simple enough chant: “Hey Har-per! You! Suck!” Later there was something about no one being illegal or some such sentiment. Somewhere in the middle of it all was apparently the rogue Senate page.

Inside the orb, the proceedings were running rather late. Eventually, about a half hour behind schedule, Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney and Senator Pamela Wallin turned up to play host. After throwing to “floor reporters” Mike Duffy and Jacques Demers from interviews with various members of the crowd, Mr. Blaney and Ms. Wallin got around to expounding on how fondly they regarded Stephen Harper. Continue…

When Senate pages attack

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 1:08 PM - 130 Comments

From his scrum after QP yesterday, Bob Rae suggests we not overreact—ANTHRAX!—to Brigette DePape’s breach of decorum.

No, I mean I think – let’s not get paranoid about this. Let’s recognize that you know, we are a country where people are free to speak. There was no security threat represented by Brigette Depape. She just expressed her point of view. You can say it was inappropriate to do it in a particular way, but the notion that somehow this is – poses some kind of a security risk is – is a gross exaggeration and I don’t think we need to go there at all. I think we need to make sure that people are protected, but I don’t think we want to prevent people from being able to express themselves.

Don't get cocky

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 12:14 PM - 15 Comments

Mark Jarvis manages to take issue with both sides of the Brigette DePape debate.

… the point here is simply that of all the reactions that DePape’s actions have generated, it is unfortunate that greater reflection about what is needed to strengthen Canadian democracy and how best to address these needs have given way to overconfidence in the status quo.

You might remember Mark from previous posts like Three-part reform. The book he cowrote with Peter Aucoin and Lori Turnbull—Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government—is now on sale. You can read the first chapter here.

'We are taking this incident very seriously'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 8:44 AM - 134 Comments

Senator David Tkachuk, chair of the Senate standing committee on internal economy, budgets and administration, rose in the Senate yesterday to offer his colleagues the following update on the rogue page situation.

Honourable Senators, all of you will be familiar with the following: I do swear that I will be faithful and bear True allegiance to Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors. So help me God.

That is the oath of a Senate Page.

A regrettable incident took place on Friday during the Throne Speech. A Senate Page, Brigitte DePape, chose to disrupt proceedings.

She broke her oath to the Queen and her signed contract with Parliament not to behave in a way that brings her impartiality into question.

Continue…

'An iconic moment'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 6, 2011 at 9:55 AM - 81 Comments

Michael Moore salutes Brigette DePape.

“For a young person to do that and to do it peacefully, and quietly and with grace, I thought it was a very powerful moment,” Moore told The Canadian Press on Sunday from New York. ”Every now and then there is an iconic moment where an individual takes action, and it inspires others to think about, you know, what else would we be doing.”

'It offended her professional responsibilities'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 6, 2011 at 8:50 AM - 90 Comments

Ned Franks considers the circumstances of the rogue Senate page.

Brigette DePape’s breaking of the rules governing the behaviour of the staff of Parliament was not civil disobedience. She was not protesting a specific law or policy. She was simply objecting to the results of a democratic nationwide election in which she, along with every other citizen 18 years or older, was entitled to vote. Her act was amusing, and held a sort of childish charm. But it offended her professional responsibilities.

'A contempt of Parliament'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 3, 2011 at 11:09 PM - 166 Comments

A statement this evening from the office of the Speaker of the Senate.

The Honourable Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate deplores the actions of a page, which constituted a contempt of Parliament, during the Opening of Parliament in the Senate Chamber today. 

All employees of the Senate are expected to serve the institution in a non-partisan manner, with competence, excellence, efficiency and objectivity.

The Senate has terminated the employee’s contract effective immediately for breaching the terms and conditions of employment. The incident raises serious security concerns which the Senate will fully investigate.

The Speaker of the Senate expresses to His Excellency the Governor General the apology of the Chamber for any embarrassment this incident may have caused.

Evan Solomon interviews Brigette DePape. Jason Kenney deems Ms. DePape a “lefty kook.” CP has reaction from Carolyn Bennett, Justin Trudeau and Senator Pierre Claude Nolin. Comments from Bob Rae and Elizabeth May after the jump. Continue…

'This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab spring'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 3, 2011 at 3:44 PM - 159 Comments

In the midst of the Governor General’s reading, a Senate page decided to protest the Speech from the Throne. The rogue page promptly issued a news release to explain her actions.

Senate Page disrupts Throne Speech

Harper’s disastrous agenda needs to be stopped with creative action and civil disobedience

Ottawa/- During the reading of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s throne speech today, a young page was yanked from the Senate Chamber as she tried to hold up a stop sign placard reading  “Stop Harper.”

“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” Brigette Marcelle says. “We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations.”

Brigette Marcelle, 21 and a recent graduate from University of Ottawa, has been a Page in the Senate for a year, but realized that working within parliament wouldn’t stop Harper’s agenda.

“Contrary to Harper’s rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper’s agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobediance,” she says.

“This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces.”

Addition by subtraction

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 3, 2011 at 11:42 AM - 2 Comments

While the government pursues a larger House and a reformed Senate, former MP Reginald Stackhouse argues we need neither.

In a time when cutting a gargantuan deficit has to be a government priority, reducing the cost of the Commons should surely come ahead of cutting health care – especially when its work could be done better by fewer rather than more MPs. Parliament – as the name itself indicates – should primarily be a place for debate, and that purpose could be fulfilled by a reduced membership better than by an increased one. But is it likely to happen? Not when a government proposes something as senseless as preserving the Senate. 

Good news, bad news: May 19-26, 2011

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 3, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Manu Fernandez/AP

Upper house repair

The Tories plan to overhaul the Senate by introducing a bill later this month that will put term limits on senators—as low as eight or 10 years—and allow provinces to elect members when positions open up. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have long talked about Senate reform, but their actions lately have been anything but democratic. Harper recently appointed to the Senate three Tory candidates who had failed to get elected to the House of Commons in the May election. Real Senate reform means more democracy, less hypocrisy.

The fast lane

The Canadian economic recovery is alive and well. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.9 per cent in the first quarter—double the rate in the U.S. The manufacturing sector also received a vote of confidence as Chrysler paid back $1.7 billion in loans to Ottawa, and Fiat’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, said this week his company is interested in buying Canada’s remaining shares in Chrysler. The bailout of Chrysler two years ago was widely criticized, but the automaker now appears to be back on the road to being a profitable, job-producing company.

In the name of hockey

In a show of hometown support, the Richmond, B.C.-based Boston Pizza will become “Vancouver Pizza” for the duration of the Stanley Cup playoffs. All restaurants will receive Vancouver Pizza banners to hang over their signage and Vancouver Pizza stickers for takeout containers. The strategy might play well outside B.C., too—a new Sportsnet poll shows 85 per cent of Canadian hockey followers are pulling for the team.

Pop till you drop

America’s knack for innovation keeps on giving. Google unveiled a mobile payment system called Google Wallet that allows shoppers to swipe their cellphones at registers to pay for purchases. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola is rolling out touch-screen vending machines that offer customers a choice between more than 100 different pop flavours. The machines use ink-jet-like syrup mixers and send data about people’s preferences back to Coke headquarters. It’s never been a better time to be a consumer.

Bad news

Julian Stratenschulte/EPA/KEYSTONE

Losing control

Yemen slipped closer to civil war as a ceasefire between government and opposition forces broke down. Fighting in the capital of Sanaa has led to over 100 deaths since President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to follow through on a pledge to resign. The government also bombed the city of Zinjibar after it was seized by Islamic militants. Saleh is accused of trying to curry favour with Western allies by exaggerating the militants’ connection to al-Qaeda, but there is little doubt the chaos raises dangerous instability. This is a black eye for the Arab Spring.

No mercy

After nearly nine years locked inside the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Omar Khadr should be accustomed to dreary news. This week brought even more: his clemency claim has been denied. The Toronto native, who was captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15 and convicted of killing an American soldier, will be transferred to a Canadian penitentiary later this year. The failed clemency bid effectively rubber-stamps the eight-year sentence he received at his recent trial, and eliminates any hope that he could apply for early parole before June 2013.

Mailing it in

The union representing 50,000 Canada Post employees is threatening to strike unless workers can keep banking sick days and get a roughly three per cent raise annually for the next four years. These demands come despite a 17 per cent drop in letter mail—not to mention that employees begin with seven weeks vacation, earn $24 an hour to start, and can retire as early as age 55. The timing of the strike also couldn’t be worse. In B.C., the long overdue HST referendum would have to be delayed because three million mail-in ballots wouldn’t reach voters.

To catch a criminal

California mistakenly released hundreds of violent inmates after being ordered to limit overcrowding in prisons. Over 450 inmates “with a high risk of violence” were let out on unsupervised parole. At least on the other side of the country, police caught a lucky break. In Maine, a man wanted on two warrants accidently “pocket-dialled” 911 while doing yardwork. He was promptly tracked down by officers.

The call came from inside the house

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 9:35 AM - 21 Comments

Among those quibbling with Stephen Harper’s plans to reform the Senate: Stephen Harper’s Senators.

“There are a lot of unintended consequences from an elected Senate,” Conservative Senator Michael MacDonald told Postmedia News. “(Not only) in terms of its relationship . . . with the House of Commons, its relationship with the government of the day and the relationship of the (senators) with their own provincial governments. These things have to be looked at because . . . the long-term implications are pretty significant.”

People often complain the Senate is illegitimate and not democratic but, MacDonald said, “the Senate wasn’t set up to be elected.” ”It was set up to be a deliberative body and not an elected body and it’s been that way for 147 years and for the most part, it seems it has worked pretty well,” he said.

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 12:16 PM - 8 Comments

Senator Hugh Segal is proposing a Senate reform referendum.

Conservative Senator Hugh Segal thinks its high time they were. He has introduced a motion in the Senate for a referendum on Senate abolition, status quo or reform twice already and is set to do so again, even as the Harper government introduces its legislation (which he supports). Any such referendum would be advisory, rather than binding, but it would be hard for any provincial leader to ignore the democratic will, if it were expressed strongly enough. “I don’t know why anyone would be afraid to give Canadians a chance to have their say,” he said.

Reform or bust

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 1:59 PM - 13 Comments

In response to Stephen Harper’s proposed Senate reforms, the Quebec government says it will see the Prime Minister in court. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty suggests it would be best to simply abolish the Senate. Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter says reform has to involve the provinces, but equally wonders about the Senate’s reason for being.

“My position on the Senate in the past has been that I think the House of Commons is elected for the purpose of representing the people of the country,” he said. “The upper house is not necessary.”

Tories to push for Senate term limits, elections

By macleans.ca - Monday, May 30, 2011 at 11:34 AM - 6 Comments

Just weeks after causing an uproar for appointing three defeated Conservative election candidates to the Senate, the Harper government has announced it will push to reform the chamber. The Conservatives will introduce legislation in June that will establish term limits and allow the provinces to set up Senate elections. The term limits will also affect senators already sitting in the chamber.  As the Official Opposition, the NDP’s stance is that the Senate should be abolished completely, rather than updated. Currently, the PM has the power to appoint senators, and they are allowed to hold their seats until the age of 75. The legislation is not expected to challenge the regional representation in the Senate, since to do so would require a Constitutional amendment. 

The Globe and Mail

'Right now, if Harper wanted to, he could be a complete dictator'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 5:38 PM - 85 Comments

Senator Bert Brown explains why we need a Senate quite unlike the one we have now.

Conservative Sen. Bert Brown, who has been travelling across the country selling provincial premiers on Harper’s reform plans, told Postmedia News he wasn’t pleased by this week’s appointments and knows they have set off a firestorm. “That’s not what I want to see for the next generation, but (Harper) is legally . . . able to do that,” Brown said. “I’ll be honest with you, I think it will stir up the populace to say it’s time we had an elected Senate.”

Brown said abolishing the Senate isn’t a solution because, not only does it require reopening the Constitution, it would also mean that, “somewhere down the line, we could have a prime minister, with a majority government, who would be able to do anything.” “He would have no opposition, he could just pass bills, and how much damage could he do to do the country?” Brown, the only elected senator, asked. That’s why, Brown said, a strong Senate that reflects the will of the provinces is needed. “Right now, if Harper wanted to, he could be a complete dictator, because there is no way to stop a majority government,” he said.

The chamber of second chances

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 5:32 PM - 13 Comments

Jeff Jedras counts 11 defeated Conservative candidates in the Senate.

Sending people that quit the Senate to run for the House and lost back to the Senate was a new twist, but still, the list of failed candidates appointed to the Red Chamber by Harper was already long, and includes Salma Ataullahjan, Yonah Martin, Claude Carignan, Fabian Manning (now twice), Michel Rivard, John Wallace, Leo Houskas, Michael Fortier and Suzanne Duplessis. And now add Larry Smith and Josee Verner to the list, making 11 Conservative Senate appointments have been rejected (at least once) by the electorate.

And now a word from Brad Wall

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 2:07 PM - 11 Comments

Noted democracy advocate Brad Wall laments for Stephen Harper’s latest Senate appointments.

“I think it takes away momentum for change at the provincial level and it will probably increase calls that we hear from time to time just saying, ‘Do we really need this institution?’” Wall told reporters at the provincial legislature Wednesday.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter is also unimpressed.

From the backbenches

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 12:37 PM - 25 Comments

Yesterday’s Senate appointments prompt anonymous complaint.

One of Mr. Harper’s MPs suggested that the Prime Minister is no longer trying to kill the Liberal Party but has instead decided to become the Liberal Party. The MP said this was an abuse of his trust and support.

The selflessness to resign, the willingness to be reappointed

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 4:37 PM - 4 Comments

Two months before being reappointed to the Senate, Fabian Manning seems to have commended himself on his willingness to resign.

Just before the election, Manning compared a Senate workday to that of an MP, implying it was less work. ”I had a choice. I could have stayed in the Senate and gone on with a lifestyle that wouldn’t necessarily have me up every day working on behalf of the people. I chose not to,” said Manning, when he announced he was leaving the Senate on March 28.

Rejected by voters, Conservatives are Senate-bound

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 2:17 PM - 14 Comments

Stephen Harper plans to appoint a trio of Conservatives defeated in the last election to the Senate. Larry Smith and Fabian Manning, both of whom stepped down from their Senate positions to run as Conservatives, as well as former cabinet minister Josée Verner, are headed to the Upper Chamber. On the night he lost his bid for a Montreal-area seat in the House of Commons, Smith notably said he wouldn’t return to the Senate.

Canadian Press