Roundup: The first independent Senate appointments arrive

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The big announcement came first thing yesterday morning – seven new senators are to be recommended, one of them to be the government’s “representative” in lieu of a caucus leader in the Senate. Some of the names appear to be good ones – that “representative” is former senior bureaucrat Peter Harder (who did lead Trudeau’s transition team when they formed government), plus Justice Murray Sinclair, editorialist André Pratte and Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc, among others. One of them is a former NDP minister in Ontario. Harder used to be a Progressive Conservative staffer, before transitioning to the civil service. There don’t seem to be any obvious Liberal patronage appointments in the bunch (i.e. party fundraisers or the like), and there does appear to be some semblance of merit-based appointments in here, as well as respect for gender and diversity.

Of course, with these appointments comes a whole lot of concern trolling and hand-wringing about whether or not they can be “truly independent” or if they are just “Liberal appointees” regardless of the process by which they were appointed. A lot of these criticisms are, of course, nonsense, unless one wants to tar every judge, administrative tribunal member or Crown Corporation appointment as similarly partisan in how they carry out their own duties. And the “secrecy” of the process that the Conservatives in particular decry? Show me one other Governor-in-Council appointment that has an open candidate list, and then we’ll talk. Because guess what – it doesn’t happen, nor should it. The Conservatives in particular made a bunch of other boneheaded complaints, including demands that the government follow the old Alberta “consultative election” process – you know, the same one that the Supreme Court already said didn’t pass constitutional muster. As for everyone else decrying the lack of democratic legitimacy writ large in the Senate, I invite them to reacquaint themselves with the principles of Responsible Government. Seriously, guys, take a remedial civics course because you’re embarrassing yourselves. As a more serious critique, here’s Mike Moffatt on the continued lack of representation from Southwestern Ontario.

And then comes the question of how these changes will affect the Senate itself as it moves forward in reforming itself to a more modern and less partisan institution with independent senators getting a greater share of the votes. All of these seven appointees have thus far said that they will sit as independents (though that may yet change), and the new Independent Working Group has already approached them with open arms in terms of joining their efforts at breaking the establishment oligarchy. I’m curious how Peter Harder will continue to be an independent while also being the “Government Representative,” though his being sworn into the Privy Council will afford him some more latitude in accessing briefing materials and cabinet meetings – Dominic LeBlanc having expressed an interest in Harder occasionally joining the Monday afternoon cabinet committee meetings on government operations as a way of helping to coordinate and strategise how to achieve the government’s agenda in the Chamber. Conservative senators are going to moan about how he’s really a Liberal, but that’s nothing new. The other thing that has every pundit in a knot is how the government can get their agenda through – particularly a budget – if they can’t whip a Senate caucus. This is probably the biggest conceptual hurdle for people to wrap their heads around (other than the fact that the Senate has pretty much never tried to defeat a budget, even if the governing party didn’t have a majority of the seats, which happens often enough), and that’s the fact that it will mean the government will be forced to rely on both the power of persuasion, and to present legislation on the strength of its merits rather than on the strength of their senators’ loyalty. This is going to be the biggest change. It’s not that we haven’t had times where senators have pushed back against their party, which is rightly their role, but this is going to be different going forward. It’s doable, and it may be the path to reform that people are looking for (because honestly, as much as people say they want elected senators, I’m not sure they grasp the reality of what 105 new backbenchers actually means). These new appointments are another step along that path, so we’ll see how it shakes out.

Good reads:

  • Bill Morneau talks long-term investments, while Alberta has their budget demands, and plans for a national infrastructure bank could be a very big deal.
  • Morneau also unveiled his new economic advisory panel, where women outnumber the men.
  • Here’s a look at how various measures in the budget could affect the national capital region.
  • Oh, look – Thomas Mulcair found a couple of Quebec MPs willing to back him openly before the convention, as well as one of the bigger unions.
  • Here’s a look at MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes’ path to politics.
  • Christian Leuprecht questions some of the logic behind the need for proportional representation.
  • Susan Delacourt wonders if Trudeau can both maintain a brand while loosening up message control coming out of the PMO.
  • Andrew Coyne has difficulty making heads or tails of the signals being sent by the government over the budget.
  • Matt Gurney pleads for a more respectful, grown-up tone in politics.

Odds and ends:

Alberta’s legislature may be reforming their Press Gallery to closer match the set-up that we enjoy in Ottawa.