Roundup: Another incoming mass appointment

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The government’s permanent Senate appointment board is set to get underway “within days” to get to work on filling the remaining 19 vacant Senate seats, but if you listen very carefully, you can hear my alarm going of that the way they appear to be planning to do this is a Very Bad Idea. Specifically, it certainly looks like the plan is to appoint all 19 in one fell swoop by the fall, and I cannot stress enough how much of a really, really bad thing this is. It’s like nobody learned any of the lessons from the glut of 18 panic appointments in 2008, and how badly that stressed the Senate in its ability to absorb that many new members at once, and the fact that it had a negative effect on their independence because it meant that the government at the time pretty much controlled them and exercised a heavy whip hand because there wasn’t time to let them integrate at their own pace. The seven appointments made this spring, without a government or caucus to guide them, put them on a steep learning curve and left them with little in the way of logistical support for setting up their offices, which isn’t exactly ideal either. That Peter Harder has now created for himself a new quasi-whip (ahem, styled “government liaison”) that has the capacity to help them with some logistics issues, barring the Independent Working Group being in a position to offer that support as well if they are in a position to do so, may wind up being one less stressor for the individual appointees, but that still doesn’t neglect the fact that mass appointments are bad for the system. Because of the nature of the Senate, it works best when individual vacancies are filled as they happen, and that those new senators gradually get up to speed, given the unique way that the chamber operates, and that really is a process that can take two or three years to get fully into it. But the government sitting on the appointment process as long as it has, in order to do these appointments in one fell swoop, is a problem, and it’s yet another problem of their own making, which is a consistent pattern when it comes to the Senate. It’s one thing I hope that does come out of this Federal Court challenge to Senate vacancies – that there is a declaration that sets a time limit for when vacancies must be filled, so that it cuts down on future mass appointments, on top of ensuring that those regions have their proper representation as they are guaranteed under the Constitution, because yes, these things do matter.

Good reads:

  • The Brexit drama has forced itself as a new item onto the agenda of the Three Amigos summit tomorrow.
  • Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is currently on a state visit to Canada, and visits Parliament Hill today.
  • C-14 has been on the books for a mere eleven days when the first court challenge to its constitutionality has already been launched, courtesy of the BCCLA.
  • Chrystia Freeland assures us that CETA is on the road to be ratified before the UK officially leaves the EU.
  • MaryAnn Mihychuk’s poor choice of phrasing made it sound like she doesn’t think Northerners pay taxes. (She actually knows better).
  • Here’s a look at the missing dialogue between doctor-assisted-dying and suicide prevention.
  • The previous government’s asylum claim system reforms are under threat as the number of claims keeps rising.
  • The F-35 is facing even more delays as its ejection seat is likely to cause fatal whiplash to pilots who weigh under 200 pounds. Oops.
  • James Bowden offers a look at how the UK’s Fixed-Term Parliaments Act complicates the Brexit situation (and is an object lesson on how not to do such laws).
  • Stephen Gordon wonders about the way we decide on Bank of Canada mandates in this country.
  • Andrew Coyne says that people need to be better sold on the benefits of free trade and political unions rather than just having it imposed on them.

Odds and ends:

Former Senator Gerry St. Germain isn’t going to be investigated by the RCMP for his expenses after all.

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