In the aftermath of the AG’s report on the Senate, we see a little more analysis of what it said – questions of residency issues, or about whether some board and charity work qualifies as Senate business – but mostly we’re seeing a bunch of hyberbolic bluster and nonsense from the pundit class about holding a referendum on Senate abolition (can’t be done during a general election, and won’t actually be binding or really democratic). No one has taken this kind of bluster to the next level quite like Thomas Mulcair, who has taken the talk to the level of being obtuse. Quebec premier Phillipe Couillard said he’s not interested in Senate abolition, end of story, but Mulcair kept insisting that he’ll get a “mandate” for abolition and he’ll work with the premiers on that issue alone, as though nobody would make other demands, or that minority provinces and territories would willingly give up what little representation they have so that they can be completely swamped by all of the Commons seats in Ontario – you know, one of the reasons why the Senate was designed the way it was, which was to act as a counterbalance. But then, Mulcair decided to not only stick with being obtuse, he doubled down on dickishness and declared that no Senator had ever done any work of any value – because apparently the Kirby report on mental health, or Romeo Dallaire’s work around child soldiers, or the study on the Canada-US price gap, or any number of examples of quality work the Senate has done – far better than anything the Commons has produced in recent memory – is nothing. With this having been said, let me add a couple of notes of my own, particularly for journalist colleagues – if you start talking about Senate “reform,” note that you had better have a specific reform proposal in mind, otherwise you’re actually talking about nothing. Senate reform is kind of like a unicorn in that it’s magical and fantastical and everyone wants it but can’t be grasped because reality soon sets in, and what reforms you’re proposing are almost certainly unworkable. Trudeau’s plan for a reformed appointment process is a start, and probably the best that can happen, but we don’t know what the outcome is going to be when those senators appointed by this new process start filtering into the system.

https://twitter.com/inklesspw/status/608645300207534080

https://twitter.com/inklesspw/status/608645895211503618

https://twitter.com/inklesspw/status/608647086427361281

Going to meme it. #SenCA pic.twitter.com/epjulE8Uni

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 10, 2015

Good reads:

• In the Duffy trial, a veteran Hill staffer said that “creative” ways to get bills paid, like businessmen with slush accounts, was common in the House of Commons.
• Stephen Harper was aboard HMCS Fredericton on the Baltic Sea, staging photo ops and getting just what he wanted – a Russian ship in the background to use as a prop.
• Looking to create a new wedge issue, the Conservatives decided to bring out the niqab ban for citizenship ceremonies, this time as promised legislation.
• Conservative Senator Don Meredith is apparently under investigation for workplace harassment.
• All parties sort of endorsed the idea of the Auditor General looking at MPs’ books, but I somehow doubt this is going to be a full forensic audit.
• Gilles Duceppe is officially coming out of retirement to lead the Bloc in the upcoming election. No, really.
• I have a column on Loonie Politics that pours some perspective sauce on the Senate audit.

Odds and ends:

A number of public servants aren’t getting paid as they migrate to a new pay system.

https://twitter.com/bfaparsons/status/608687876302200832

https://twitter.com/bfaparsons/status/608693825557504000