Roundup: Still no Senate decisions

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Amidst all of the activity yesterday, one of the things we did learn was that the new Prime Minister has yet to decide what he plans to do with regards to the Senate. It did not go unnoticed on Wednesday that there was no Leader of the Government in the Senate named to cabinet, but as we found out, it’s because he simply hasn’t decided what he’s doing yet, and that’s the same with regards to the Speaker. It raises all kinds of questions about how things are going to be managed with regards to the Senate, and Government House Leader Dominic Leblanc has been named the person to be the liaison between the two chambers, as is fair. What concerns me, however, is that in all of the talk of making the Senate more independent, what isn’t being considered is how it will do its job in holding the government to account if there is nobody in the chamber for them to do so (not to mention that it really is a problem if there is no member of cabinet in the chamber to shepherd government bills through either, which the Conservatives have been fudging for the past year or so). Some senators have been musing about cancelling Senate Question Period altogether, or having it simply focus on asking questions of committee chairs, but that seems particularly short-sighted, considering that they tended to ask far better quality questions of the government as compared to the Commons. Yes, the last couple of government leaders were not exactly great at responding to questions, but neither were ministers down in the Commons, and that era is hopefully over. The loss of the accountability function would be a huge blow to our parliament as a whole, and I hope that the Liberal government is considering this problem. Meanwhile, John Pepall urges caution with appointing too many good-hearted experts to the Senate, as it may empower them to challenge the democratically elected government too often as is starting to happen over in the UK, with the Lords starting to push back against their own limits. Food for thought in that there are consequences even for well-intentioned acts.

Good reads:

  • As it turns out, five of those women in cabinet are actually ministers of state and not full ministers – but it’s because ministries can’t be created out of thin air, and hey, their pay will be the same thanks to changes made by Paul Martin.
  • Rona Ambrose is the new interim leader of the Conservatives. Reaction from Michael Den Tandt here.
  • Harper, meanwhile, went through the backdoor to meet with caucus for a few minutes, then escaped out the back way again and avoided questions.
  • The Liberals voted down the implementation of the Reform Act for their caucus, but decided to put it to their party membership. Conservatives voted to keep two of the four pillars.
  • The very first decision by the new government is the restoration of the mandatory long-form census. Kevin Milligan thinks it can be better transformed in the future.
  • Another Trudeau move was to tell senior diplomats that the shackles are loosened and they can start engaging again with foreign governments.
  • The new Minister of Defence is still an active member of the Canadian Forces (awaiting discharge), which makes for a problematic situation vis-à-vis civilian control. Here’s more about his time in Afghanistan.
  • There is a great deal of excitement that we have two science ministers (plus the reason why).
  • Here’s a look at Stéphane Dion’s political redemption.
  • There’s going to be an investigation into Afghan detainee abuse allegations.
  • Paul Wells gives his assessment of Trudeau’s first cabinet. Wells also writes about Harper’s own lessons that he forgot in the last four years.

Odds and ends:

The US Navy is extending its order (and lifespan) for Super Hornets, which could be good for Canada if that’s the CF-18 replacement we go with.

The new Heritage minister is going to make a decision on the Victims of Communism Memorial soon.

Liberal MP Denis Paradis says he wants to run to be Speaker.