"If there was ever any doubt that Stephen Harper's Conservatives bear zero resemblance to the long-ago reformers who railed against government corruption and pork barrel politics, the expense scandal that's engulfed Senator Mike Duffy has surely put it to rest."
editorial, May 19
North Shore News
DOES stealing from taxpayers qualify as treason?
Is it time for Canadians to demand an end to the farcical trough known as the Canadian Senate?
Convened by the Constitution of 1867, we are told the appointed Senate exists to act as a house of "sober second thought" as Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, said.
The intention was that an upper house would give regional balance to the often lopsided powers of elected members of Parliament.
In reality, for much of my 57-year span in this country, the Senate has been the butt of exasperated criticisms from people who see sparse attendance records, very little work of note to hold parliamentarians' feet to the fire and, with increasing frequency, a disturbing lack of ethics on the part of its patronage appointees.
The News editorial was right to begin its Feathering the Nest commentary with the words quoted at the head of this column.
Those of you who were here during the first days of the Reform Party on the North Shore may remember two of its rallying cries: "the West wants in" and "triple-E Senate."
Those two slogans were inextricably linked.
Although the upstart party actually began in the basement of a Victoria home and not in Alberta as most people believe, the major trigger for "wanting in" was two-fold. Firstly, Albertans were angry with the National Energy Program being proposed by then Liberal energy minister Jean Chrétien. Secondly, many Canadians west of the Rockies had had their fill of Ottawa's focus on Quebec and Ontario as the centre of the country's political universe.
Arising out of that was the belief that a series of appointed senators had done nothing to redress the East versus West imbalance.
The solution, reformers believed, was to have an Elected and Effective upper house that gave Equal representation to every region of the country - hence the notion of a triple-E Senate.
Whether or not the perceptions of early reformers were justified is for history to determine.
All I can do is speak for myself when I say that, for those involved in building that party, the motivation and work of North Shore members was sincere - the best of democracy at work.
That the Reform Party, as it evolved through Preston Manning's Canadian Alliance to the party's eventual merger with the national Progressive Conservatives, has ended up with the scandals of today, is an insult to all Canadians.
Most galling of all is that, 27 years on, the disgusting lack of ethics on the part of Senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and others, coupled with the extraordinary $90,000 payout to Duffy by Harper's chief of staff Nigel Wright, flip far more than Trudeau's middle finger ever did to Reformers.
The current situation is the epitome of everything that is wrong with our so-called democracies.
Last February, when Conservative members of the Senate forced Brazeau to step away from the Conservative caucus while domestic dispute allegations were being investigated, they claimed they were taking the action "to protect the dignity and reputation of the Senate and the public trust and confidence in Parliament."
Reputation? Do I have news for their ridiculous, delusionary egos!
Pure and simple, the reason Harper sits where he does today and that four or more of his appointees have been able to indulge their (alleged?) self-gratification is because the honest work of thousands of innocent Canadians made it possible.
Those Canadians lost their trust and confidence in Parliament long, long ago.
Memo to senators:
The reputation of the Senate is in tatters; has been for more than three decades.
If you are not asked to pre-approve the prime minister's plans before he implements them, then 98 per cent of the time you do nothing to modify or improve a bill after a government majority in the House of Commons has approved it.
You achieve nothing of note and serve little purpose in today's Canadian democracy.
As one significant example: You have said nothing that suggests you plan to protect Canadians' interests against Harper's proposed 32-year long Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.
In summary: You are a self-neutered, extremely expensive luxury we cannot afford.
So I for one no longer hope for a Triple-E Senate. I want to see the Constitution opened up for revision and hope for two things to arise out of that:
First, the Senate must be abolished - now. Second, I want the word "Responsibilities" added to the included Charter of Rights and Freedoms - complete with the clauses to support that addition.
Yesterday, an apparently sincere prime minister, while saying nothing about Wright's involvement, used the word "abolished" in referring the Senate.
About time.
And lastly, if the allegations against Brazeau, Duffy, Wallin and any others are proven, then I'd like to see the guilty parties punished to the fullest extent of the law - and that includes jail time where appropriate.
Hell, as the saying suggests, hath no fury like citizens scorned.
rimco@shaw.ca