Roundup: Peter Harder, hero of the Senate

Posted on by

Oh, Senator Peter Harder. The Government Leader in the Senate – err, “government representative” did the media rounds yesterday to both promote his fifty-page position paper on his conception of the constitutional role of the Senate, and to kick at the Conservatives whom he claims are “sabotaging” his attempts to turn the Senate into a less partisan place. (I have a column reacting to the contents of the paper coming out later, so stay tuned for that). I’m constantly struck by Harder’s attempts to play the hero in this when he’s done virtually nothing to earn the title. Aside from putting out this paper in advance of the Modernization committee’s upcoming report, Harder has pretty much eschewed his actual duties of negotiating with the various caucuses in the Senate on legislative timelines (because negotiating and horse-trading is “partisan”), and he didn’t do his job in canvassing the votes for the marijuana bill, and even though it was in no danger of being defeated, he still got caught with his pants down and was a big drama queen about it. But instead of taking a modicum of personal responsibility for not doing his job, he instead blames the Conservatives for “sabotage” when they’re doing their job as opposition, when he would prefer that Senators never defeat bills (which would make his job even easier and put even less pressure on him to do his job). And yet nobody pushes back against his narratives in the media.

Senator McCoy meanwhile, makes a point that hasn’t been well aired in public yet, which is that Harder has been pushing for the Senate to return to the model of the Clerk being responsible for all of the Senate’s bureaucracy rather than the three-clerk model that they moved to post-Duffy scandal – a model which forces senators to take more responsibility for their actions rather than being able to blame their bureaucracy. Questions about the government’s control over that Clerk are certainly live ones, and it does undermine the notion that the Senate is supposed to be getting more independent. Apparently, that doesn’t extend to its internal operations. Curious indeed.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau announced that rather than fly directly to Paris from Peru, he’ll swing by Ottawa on Sunday night to meet with Rachel Notley and John Horgan.
  • Horgan, meanwhile, insists he won’t back down and is now suggesting that they should build more refineries instead. *head desk*
  • Business leaders are demanding a swift resolution to the Trans Mountain crisis. Well, I mean, so long as Trudeau can wave a magic wand and make it go away…
  • AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde is complaining that First Nations are being left out of Trans Mountain talks (I would venture they’re being treated separately).
  • The US has suddenly softened some of its key NAFTA demands, and is talking about rejoining the TPP (possibly to pressure China).
  • Harjit Sajjan is demanding a crackdown on the racist and misogynistic comments found on the Facebook pages of Canadian Forces members.
  • The former commander of the Canadian Forces cyber operation centre has been charged with fraud.
  • Ruh-roh! An audit of our embassy in Cairo shows some very bad management practices going on.
  • There is a shortage of EpiPens in Canada, and the government is trying to mitigate the situation.
  • NDP MP Don Davies wants the government to launch criminal investigations and to seek compensation from drug companies for their part in the opioid crisis.

Odds and ends:

It’s the classic Ottawa Centre confusion – Catherine McKenney vs Catherine McKenna.

Programming Note: There won’t be a weekend roundup post, as I’m off to Toronto to deliver a keynote speech. See you Monday!

Help Routine Proceedings expand. Support my Patreon.