Roundup: Senate drama a hopeful sign

Posted on by

Drama in the Senate! Conservative Senator John Wallace quits the Conservative caucus over what he calls irreconcilable differences with the current leadership and fellow Conservative senators over their constitutional role. Will this streak of independent thinking spread to more Conservatives as the iron grip of the former Prime Minister weakens? (Note: Please read those preceding sentences in Clone Wars newsreel voice). In all seriousness, this was bound to happen, and it may not be the last we’ll see either. You see, Senators generally get more independent the longer they’re on the job, and historically that independence goes into overdrive once the Prime Minister that appointed them is no longer in charge, and it gets even more pronounced during a leadership contest. Wallace was part of the Class of 2009 in the Conservative Senate caucus, making him one of the longer-serving members, and he’s starting to feel his independence much more now. With Harper out of the way, and the inappropriate attempts by the PMO to exercise invisible levers of power within the Senate now over – attempts which only succeeded because mass appointments created a situation where those newbie senators were given the false notion that they could and should be whipped, alongside a sense that they needed to go along with what they were being told to do in order to “support the prime minister.” That pressure is gone, and things that have been bothering Wallace for the past couple of years – things like the shabby treatment of those formerly suspended senators who were not given an appropriate chance to address the accusations made about them, or the ways in which deeply flawed Conservative private members bills were passed without amendment “because amending the bill would kill it” they were constantly told (never mind that it should be an object lesson to MPs to do their jobs of due diligence instead of passing bills blindly). From the sounds of it, the current Senate leadership is looking to try and keep up some of their heavy-handed practices, and Wallace has had enough. There have been other Conservatives who bucked the party line on a number of other bills in the last parliament (the revolt over C-377 the first time around being a good example, and those holdouts who kept up their objections the second time around being ones to watch), so we may start seeing more Conservative senators ready to do their jobs more diligently. Nevertheless, Wallace’s stand this week is a good sign.

Good reads:

  • As it turns out, the RCMP weren’t consulted about the Conservatives’ proposed “Barbaric cultural practices hotline” promise.
  • Stéphane Dion isn’t optimistic about the outcomes of the COP21 climate conference, which could be about pushing for stronger targets.
  • Harjit Sajjan says he’s not committing to any timeline on transitioning the Iraq mission from bombing to training.
  • Matthew Fisher teased out some more preparatory details on the Syrian refugee plans. Security experts and the head of CSIS say that screenings won’t be a problem.
  • Adam Goldenberg offers a legal exploration of the legalization of marijuana across federal and provincial lines.
  • Michael Petrou’s account of post-attack Paris is a great read, while Martin Patriquin looks to the Vietnamese Boat People for examples of refugee panics past.
  • Part three of Laura Stone’s look at the RCMP investigation into Senate expenses looks at the shadow the Duffy trial casts over the rest of the investigations.
  • Paul Boothe offers advice to ministers who may one day blurt out inadvertent things they don’t mean to the media.
  • Susan Delacourt writes about how Trudeau’s mandate letters are as much about undoing the Harper years as they are building a new legacy for the Liberals.
  • Paul Wells notes that Trudeau can’t use Harper as his foil any longer, which may make his job tougher.

Odds and ends:

The Conservatives have announced that Denis Lebel is the new deputy leader, and outgoing Speaker Andrew Scheer is the new House Leader.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna got the 22 Minutes treatment this week.

Media in the Philippines is trying to make a “hottest APEC leader” competition between Trudeau and Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto.