Roundup: The modernization agenda

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Conservative Senator Thomas McInnis, chair of the new modernisation committee, took to the op-ed pages of the Chronicle Herald to talk about just that – their process of modernising the Upper Chamber by non-constitutional means. While much of the op-ed is pretty standard stuff, he did say a couple of things that intrigued me, so I’ll make brief mention of them. First is that as they contemplate changes and incorporating the increasing number of independent senators, that they need to recognise that since the Senate is not a confidence chamber, it doesn’t need to organise itself on party lines in the same way that the Commons does. This is an important point, because as much as it is an important concept to have a government and opposition side in our Westminster system of government, the role of the Senate means that it doesn’t need to hew as closely to that model. Now, I do still think that the Government Leader in the Senate should have remained a cabinet minister for the sake of there being someone who can answer for the government in the chamber, as well as to properly shepherd government legislation through the Chamber (the minister-in-all-but-name model that Harper used for Claude Carignan was very much a poor idea that limited the exercise of Responsible Government), the fact that the Senate is not a confidence chamber does blunt my criticisms to an extent. McInnis also dropped hints about one of the modernisation committee’s goals being to strengthen the role of being an “effective” representative for regions and provinces. This is interesting because I do wonder if it means that there will be a push to form regional caucuses within the Senate, as is occasionally brought up. I’m not sure how it would really work – essentially having four or five party-like structures (Ontairo, Quebec, the Maritimes, and the West each being 24-seat regional divisions, plus the additional six seats for Newfoundland and Labrador and one each for the territories could either fold into one of the other regional caucuses or forming a caucus of their own), and how they would then translate that into the committee memberships and so on, but it is an idea that has been mentioned before, so we’ll see what kind of appetite there is for it, or if the new Independent Working Group will hold more sway in terms of keeping the current structure but giving more power to independent senators for committee memberships and the like. With there being no opposition MPs from the whole of the Atlantic provinces, this is where the Senate’s regional role becomes more important – and they have been flexing those muscles when ministers have appeared before them in the new Question Period format – but it remains to be seen how this will translate into workable reforms. Suffice to say, these are conversations that are being had, and we’ll see what the committee reports back in the weeks ahead.

Good reads:

  • Thomas Mulcair says that Donald Trump is a fascist and he wants Justin Trudeau to call him out (after Trudeau said he won’t pick a fight with Trump).
  • Trudeau is headed to the nuclear safety summit with the accomplishment of phasing out highly-enriched uranium being used in medical isotope production.
  • Bill Morneau says that they’re not going the route of paid ads to promote the budget.
  • Refugee sponsor groups still waiting for their Syrian families to arrive are continuing to voice their disappointment in how the system suddenly slowed down.
  • Jian Ghomeshi’s lawyer, Marie Henein, took aim at Thomas Mulcair’s #IBelieveSurvivors tweet because it denigrates the legal system.
  • In encouraging news, DND has lost track of the number of private contractors it hires for things like maintenance. Management!
  • Third-party groups saw a five-fold increase in spending in the last election compared to previous elections.
  • Terry Glavin shreds Stéphane Dion’s “responsible conviction” doctrine.

Odds and ends:

Some Ottawa architects gave some ideas about what a new 24 Sussex could look like (though I still think they should restore the original façade).

Here’s the behind-the-scenes of that 2011 Justin Trudeau-doing-peacock-pose photo that suddenly made the rounds again this week.