Roundup: Another six senators

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Six new Ontario senators were named yesterday, bringing the total of new senators up to 15 with another six to go, and yes, all of them look fully qualified on their face (such as Kim Pate, interviewed here), but as Mike Moffatt points out, a region as significant as Southwestern Ontario remains without any representation in the upper chamber, while John Ivison notes that most of these senators are looking pretty ideologically similar in that they’re largely small-l liberals, achieving a particular partisanship without it being nakedly so. More than just it being a form of partisanship, Philippe Lagassé wonders if these new appointments aren’t creating a fundamental change in the institution from one where it is based on a challenge function to the government (by way of sober second thought) into one where its members are so far to the progressive side that they will push the government into taking far more progressive steps than they would have otherwise, and using the Senate as their excuse for doing so (as in, woe, the Senate made us be far more progressive in this legislation than we wanted, and they forced us into it lest they veto the bill). He’s got a point, and I very much suspected that they were going to do that with the assisted dying bill, and then they very much did not, while they both continued to use the Supreme Court as their particular shield to hide behind, making the courts force their hand once again. Will they continue in this way, or will they start using the Senate as their vanguard more often? Well, time will tell, I suppose, but it is something to take notice of.

Meanwhile, Kady O’Malley wonders what will happen once the non-aligned senators have the balance of power in the Senate, and whether it means the demise of a big-O Official Opposition in the Senate. And this is where I think she and I depart ways a bit because I do see value in there still being caucuses (albeit not the same power balance as exists currently) rather than the chamber as a whole as opposition, especially because of the way that Senator Peter Harder has been trying to slowly co-opt those non-aligned senators for his own purposes. Part of why I see the value in caucuses is that when it comes to something like Opposition, it’s more effective to combine strengths (without being thoughtless voting blocs because come on, the last eight years of nonsense by the bulk of Conservative senators was also not exactly edifying) than to just be a bunch of loose fish nibbling around the edges, with dubious effectiveness. But maybe that’s just me.

Good reads:

  • New immigration levels were announced, but increases weren’t drastic. Power Play got some good commentary from immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges here.
  • The government said they will vote for the NDP’s non-binding motion on First Nations child welfare funding, but we’ll see how it actually gets implemented.
  • The Transportation Safety Board released their watch list yesterday, which includes items that have been dragging out for a decade or more.
  • The Correctional Investigator noted a rise in the use of pepper spray by prison guards, and still rising Aboriginal incarceration levels.
  • Here’s a look at the lapsed spending by federal departments over the last year, and why it’s not as easy as just saying to spend it on x-programme you want to.
  • Job dissatisfaction and frequent moves around the country are listed as reasons why the Canadian Forces has a personnel retention problem.
  • Looking to avoid another F-35 fiasco, Public Works inserted some language in the warship bidding contracts about not trashing each other in the media.
  • Justin Trudeau quietly held a town hall on electoral reform in his riding, and apparently they largely favoured proportional representation.
  • Steven Blaney says he would use the Notwithstanding Clause to maintain mandatory minimum legislation that the courts have struck down.
  • Kady O’Malley has a look at where fundraising levels in the Conservative leadership race were sitting at as of the summer, with Bernier and Leitch in the lead.
  • Stephen Gordon looks at the economic data to figure out why Canada seems to have avoided most of the anti-immigrant/anti-trade backlash other countries see.

Odds and ends:

Senator Scott Tanas praises the new Senate Chamber being on time and on budget.

Here are the PM’s Halloween photos, as a character from Le Petit Prince (with son Hadrien as the title character).

 

One thought on “Roundup: Another six senators”

  1. On the immigration front McCallum was told by senior mgmt at Immigration that we do not have the staff to process more and a certain number each year. Let’s not forget that staff cuts and hiring freeze started under Peter Harder and continued. It will be a tough situation to process 300K.

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