The punditariat continues to lose their minds over Senate independence, and I’m almost at the point of exasperation with it. After years – decades – of hand-wringing about how senators aren’t independent enough to do their jobs of sober second thought, we are suddenly overcome with hand-wringing about them being too independent and the government being unable to pass legislation (as though the opposition having a Senate majority has never happened in our country’s history before…oh, wait). It’s kind of like how We The Media keep demanding MPs be independent and vote for their constituents’ wishes and so on, and yet the moment one of them shows a little bit of backbone, we thunder that the leader is losing control of his or her caucus. Because that’s helpful. And so, Campbell Clark bemoans that poor Peter Harder doesn’t have any levers of power in the Senate to do Trudeau’s bidding, and lo, he may not even have much of an office budget either (though he can always ask the Internal Economy to increase it – this is not something that is set in stone for all time). Add to that, Clark worries that all of those new independent senators are going to have to find some new process of working things out – completely ignoring that they have already started getting that ball rolling with the Independent Working Group. It’s like he hasn’t paid attention to what is actually going on there and has been going on for the past several weeks. Meanwhile, Chantal Hébert looks at André Pratte’s history and notes his differences with Trudeau’s philosophy, then bemoans that with all of those incoming senators, that the party leader won’t be responsible for their behaviour as they once might have been. And what is Hébert ignoring? Only the most fundamental principle in Canadian democracy – Responsible Government. Trudeau will be responsible to voters for the conduct of his appointees, whether he can whip them or not. That is a fundamental tenet of our system. If he makes a bunch of dud appointments, then guess what – voters can have their say, just as they had their say with Harper after the extent of the ClusterDuff business came out in court. This is a basic concept, and it’s disappointing that a long-time observer of Canadian politics has to be reminded of it.

1) In this country, opposition doesn’t govern even in a minority government; 2) How could that bill possibly work without a Royal Rec.?

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 29, 2016

(This rant brought to you by @ChantalHbert yet again raising the bill in her column today: https://t.co/zg8SOh381z)

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 29, 2016

Good reads:

• Former Liberal minister (and Bloc Québécois co-founder) Jean Lapierre died yesterday in a plane crash, along with his wife, sister and two brothers.
• Stéphane Dion unveiled his new foreign policy platform, dubbed “responsible conviction” yesterday.
• Trudeau is headed to Washington for a nuclear summit later this week.
• While in Calgary yesterday, Trudeau said that EI changes will be monitored and reviewed, but made no other promises.
• The government vow to help with more youth employment sounds to be like a measure that is still to come.
• There remain Syrian family applications in the refugee system that people can’t understand why there is a delay in processing.
• The Information Commissioner’s lawsuit around the previous government’s retroactive legislation absolving the RCMP of deleting data is still in limbo.
• Language commissioners have long been advocating the end of the “bilingual bonus” as ineffectively. So far, only CSIS has managed with non-union employees.
• Jen Gerson wonders why we are continuing to talk about Bombardier if they don’t actually need a federal bailout.
• Susan Delacourt muses about Justin Trudeau not naming a deputy PM, putting a stake in that tradition.
• My Loonie Politics column this week notes Trudeau’s speech following Jim Hillyer’s death, and how his “family friendly” reforms will only make MPs more estranged.

Odds and ends:

CBC obtained documents relating to a Health Canada employee who abused their government credit card for personal gain.

Spare a thought for Jean Lapierre's mother, who lost her husband, and four of her children, in two days. Heartbreaking.

— Leslie Stojsic (@LeslieStojsic) March 29, 2016