Roundup: Automatic disqualifiers

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It has been talked about before on this blog, and will probably be talked about again, but the selection process for those 19 vacant Senate seats is now open, and the process allows people to nominate themselves if they so choose. There’s a good piece about this and how it contributes to selection bias in the appointment panel, but the head of said panel insists that they are reaching out to all manner of groups to get names to consider but they are using the individual application process to help broaden the search to ensure that they don’t miss out on anyone who is worthy of the job. Of course, self-selection should probably be considered as criteria for elimination off the start – usually it tends to indicate a particular over-inflated sense of self (and yes, I do know of a couple of people who have been looking to get their names submitted as part of this process, and yes, they are a bit narcissistic), and a betrayal of what a Senate appointment should be about. Really, it should be about a way of contributing to public service when one’s career is winding down, and of being able to contribute to the public dialogue given a particular perspective. It’s almost like a form of recognition for doing good work over a lifetime, and being given an opportunity to give back a little more (because really, the salary isn’t as generous as people like to portray it as, given the amount of work that tends to be involved). It’s always been a bit contentious when prime ministers appointed people in terms of their age and place in their career. Some, like Chrétien, tended to appoint them too old so that they only had a short time to contribute, which hurts the ability to have the Senate serve as a chamber of institutional memory and longer-term vision. But sometimes they appoint people far too young – Harper’s appointment of Patrick Brazeau being but one shining example of how poor of a choice that really was. Let’s hope that this is one of those considerations that the independent panel becomes a bit more cognisant of as they move ahead with this next phase of their task.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at the Senate’s revamped communications effort and the team they’ve assembled to do the work, which is moving away from bland and safe to being more response and proactive in reaching out to showcase the work of the Senate and of individual senators.

Good reads:

  • In Ukraine, Trudeau signed a free trade agreement, but wouldn’t commit to keeping up out military training mission there past March.
  • To be clear, the message out of the NATO summit is that it’s not a Cold War. Well, not really but kinda.
  • While Jason Kenney’s departure from the federal Conservative leadership race opens the door for others, Kevin O’Leary has been meeting with Tony Clement.
  • Here’s a look at the different ways the Liberals are rolling out their child benefit cheques as opposed to how the Conservatives did it.
  • RCMP Commissioner Paulson said that those Mounties balking at “Red Serge duty” to protest working conditions are not expected to do it.
  • A group of immigration detainees are on a hunger strike, asking to meet with the minister of public safety.
  • Judges deciding on the government’s bid to recoup “excess” compensation funds for tainted blood victims are suggesting a second, depleted fund be recapitalized.
  • It looks like some of those Canadian-built light armoured vehicles were used in a raid on a minority house in Saudi Arabia.
  • Rona Ambrose said that when she was health minister, she tried to get drug companies to pay into a fund for Thalidomide survivors, but they refused.
  • Here’s an interesting look at the range of different evidence that Health Canada should be considering for its regulations.
  • Andrew Coyne thinks we should turn CPP into a kind of RRSP programme. I have my doubts.

Odds and ends:

Government pay screw-ups are causing some people to be continually overpaid, multiple times (as there are stories of people not getting paid for months).

The Quebec premier now says that the CSeries jet doesn’t need federal money…but it would still be nice.

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