Roundup: The Senate should strangle Chong’s bill

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There has been a sudden flurry of concern regarding the state of Michael Chong’s Reform Act, currently in the Senate, because the bill is likely to die there. In fact, if there were any sense in the world, it would, but not before the pundit class starts wailing and gnashing their teeth about how terrible it is that the unelected Senate would defeat a wildly popular bill from the Commons. Of course, that’s immediately where my head hits the desk, because that’s exactly why we have the Senate we do – because sometimes MPs overwhelmingly vote in dumb things, and cooler heads in the Senate can talk them down and defeat them without fear of electoral repercussion. You know, sober second thought, the raison d’etre of the Upper Chamber. And let’s face it – the Reform Act is a spectacularly terrible bill that will undermine Responsible Government and our system of Westminster-style democracy pretty much permanently. And if you think the gong show that just happened with the leadership review in Manitoba was an exception, well, Chong’s bill would see to it that those become somewhat more the norm across the country. The bill will do nothing to “empower” MPs. It will do the opposite by disincentivising them from rebelling against their leaders, as has successfully overturned bad leaders in many instances (most recently Alison Redford comes to mind). What will empower MPs is for them to actually stiffen their spines and do their jobs, because they have all the power that they need already – a lesson that Senator Fraser reiterated in her speech against Chong’s bill. But contrary to Andrew Coyne’s assertion, the Conservative leadership in the Senate has been inclined to pass the bill, but there are a number of Conservative senators who have wised up to the fact that the bill is terrible and they would do well to kill it in one way or another. Other senators are keenly aware that even MPs who voted for the bill know it’s terrible but didn’t think they could be seen to vote against it, so they sent it to the Senate, where it could be killed there, and they could use it as political cover (and denounce those terrible, awfully, unelected and unaccountable senators for killing a bill that passed the Commons even though MPs knew it was terrible). The “pass it off to the other chamber” game is not a new phenomenon (second only to “let’s pass it off to the Supreme Court”), but it’s another sign of how spineless MPs have become. Not that Chong’s bill would do anything about that spinelessness, ironically. Instead, it looks like it will be up to the Senate to save MPs from themselves yet again, and MPs won’t learn their lessons about taking their responsibilities seriously.

Good reads:

  • Regional minsters offices have been compromising security by installing unsecured wireless routers. This is serious business that needs to be clamped down on.
  • Peter MacKay says that they have begun the process of consultations on physician-assisted dying legislation.
  • Former Sergeant-At-Arms Kevin Vickers finally spoke more about what happened on October 22nd.
  • Western countries found themselves unprepared for the terrorists taking to social media to spread their message, while an independent report on our mission to Iraq grades us poorly.
  • Justin Trudeau took his tax measures to Bay Street, and John Geddes wonders about the narrative of class friction.
  • Paul Wells re-evaluates Elizabeth May’s performance as Green Party leader to date.

Odds and ends:

Staff at the High Commission in London have had business cards created for themselves that violate government rules.

Apparently the ghost of Jack Layton is campaigning in Toronto. So does this mean that the NDP strategy is egregious political necrophilia?

Patrick Brazeau is upholding the dignity of the Senate by taking a job as a wrestling referee. No, seriously.