Roundup: About those Senators who approached Mulcair

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Thomas Mulcair is telling people that he’s had senators approach him to say that they would be willing to work with him to pass a hypothetical NDP government’s legislation, but he won’t name names. While this may well be true, at least to a certain extent – we have been seeing numerous examples in the past couple of weeks of Mulcair exaggerating the truth – this should be unpacked a little bit. The first and most obvious thing is that we need to put aside the Harper Derangement Syndrome conspiracy theory that all of the Conservative senators are going to simply defeat any Liberal or NDP legislation that comes through because the fact that they were Harper appointees will apparently make them extra dickish, or something. Never mind that we’ve had plenty of parliaments where the party not in power held a majority in the Senate and lo and behold, things got passed with little difficulty. This will not change in the future. The second is that these Senators all know that they have a job to do, and that’s to scrutinize bills that come before them. Most of the time they pass. Occasionally they get amended and sent back. On very rare occasions, they get defeated, almost always because those bills are either fatally flawed, out of order, or unconstitutional and got passed on a whipped vote. And if the NDP holds up that climate change bill as an example of one the Senate killed, well, it’s because it was out of order and never should have been allowed to pass the Commons. That said, they are not rubber stamps, and won’t simply pass bills because the Commons did. It’s not their job, and if Mulcair has a problem with that, there’s a Supreme Court reference decision he should read. Third is that even if Senate Liberals formed a quasi-government caucus in the Senate should the NDP form government, it’s because the system needs to operate somehow. They are likely going to have to kluge together some kind of procedural workarounds to the fact that there won’t be an actual Leader of the Government in the Senate who can answer on behalf of the government, and if a hypothetical Prime Minister Mulcair doesn’t appoint a Senate Speaker, that is pretty much a constitutional nightmare waiting to happen. But Mulcair refuses to answer these fundamental procedural issues, while at the same time, he and his people continue to do nothing but hurl insults at the Chamber and its inhabitants while promising their abolition (which won’t happen, but they’re going to try anyway), while continuing to actively ignore the constitutional obligation to make appointments. So no, I’m not reassured by these senators who have allegedly approached him, because there’s more to it than just passing bills. We have a parliamentary architecture that he continues to ignore, and that should be worrying to anyone who cares about parliamentary democracy.

On the campaign:

  • Stephen Harper promises to create a “Maple Leaf” designation for people who foster links between Canada and their home countries, as well as more support for manufacturing and fighting cancer.
  • Thomas Mulcair didn’t have any announcements this weekend, but regrets using the term “Newfie” as a synonym for “stupid” some two decades ago.
  • Justin Trudeau announced Liberal defence policy, which involves dropping the F-35s for a cheaper alternative and a higher priority on the navy; and also said a Liberal government would consider airlifting Syrian refugees.

Good reads:

  • Here’s a very good and astonishing long read about the way in which the current government has destroyed our capacity for data in governance.
  • The government has finally stepped up their measures for bringing over Syrian refugees, announcing more staff and fewer document requests.
  • The NDP have been trying to pressure Kevin Page to back down from his calling their fiscal framework “Swiss cheese,” but he refuses.
  • Documents show that the current naval overhaul project is in serious trouble, and we won’t be getting the ships we need. But nobody panic, Jason Kenney’s got this.
  • The timing of the election has scuttled backroom talks the government was holding to acquire those French-built helicopter carrier ships.
  • That NDP candidate has backed away from his statement on reopening the constitution to ban niqabs (but the party didn’t issue a condemnation either).
  • Harper and Mulcair have also responded to Philippe Couillard’s open letter, after Trudeau did last week.
  • The NDP practice of “leaking” riding polls – especially ones of dubious methodology – has pollsters in arms about the damage it’s doing to their industry.
  • Ashley Csanady writes about MPs breastfeeding and other challenges (but it should be pointed out it’s less an issue with the baby in the chamber than other MPs rushing over to see it that’s the disruption).
  • Here is Stephen Saideman’s review of the Liberal defence platform.
  • The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ looks at Mulcair’s statement that their Syrian refugee pledge is based on UN requests. (Spoiler: Full of baloney).

Odds and ends:

Here’s a transcript of a conversation between a reporter in Burnaby and Conservative headquarters on trying to reach candidates.

A Bloc candidate is profoundly sorry for appearing to support a right-wing European group.

The National Capital Commission has quietly abandoned its 2017 GHG reduction targets.

https://twitter.com/scott_gilmore/status/645630389361381376