Over in the Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson has declared that Justin Trudeau’s reforms to the Senate “worked,” and that Andrew Scheer should continue to appoint independents instead of partisans, and I just. Cannot Even. Reading the piece, it’s clear that Ibbitson has no real grounding in what the Senate is supposed to do on an actual basis, the various roles it plays aside from its legislative duties, and he has absolutely no conception of the broader scope of the problem that Justin Trudeau has unleashed on future parliaments – and how he has hobbled his own party in the future, while further centralizing his own power. But Ibbitson seems to have taken the word of Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Peter Harder, that this is how Parliament is “supposed” to work – Harder not exactly being a credible source – as well as an emeritus professor who has been a booster not only for these reforms, but who thinks it would be great to go even further and institute a business committee (which would be an even bigger problem going forward). So no, I’m not going to take Ibbitson’s word that this has “worked.”

While I’m not going to pretend that the Senate didn’t have its problems beforehand, a good many of the problems in recent years can be traced to the fact that Stephen Harper made some spectacularly poor appointments in his rush to populate the Chamber during the prorogation crisis of 2008, after he neglected to fill its seats for long enough that what Conservative senators there were in the Chamber at the time were clamouring for more members because there weren’t enough of them to adequately spread around the workload. And rather than make thoughtful appointments, Harper panic appointed a number of partisans who had no suitability to the role, and lo, problems and scandal ensued.

There is absolutely a partisan role for senators because they’re the institutional memory of parliament, and that especially includes inside the caucus room, and that also keeps a check on the leader because they don’t have to worry about their nomination papers being signed. And the Liberals are going to find out just how necessary those roles are when they’re no longer in power and have few people with the knowledge to help them rebuild. And yes, it will happen eventually. And as for the “new” system “working,” they can’t manage the Order Paper, and they have a crisis in front of them with the election looming. But hey, Peter Harder says it’s going swimmingly, so he’s the person we should believe. Okay then.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau called out the Conservative premiers threatening national unity consequences if the government passes its environmental assessment bill.
• The MMIW Inquiry’s recommendation for a national police task force on cold cases could be far more difficult to implement than they seem to indicate.
• Elections Canada outlined their plans for more and longer advance polling and other measures to increase voter turnout.
• The Canadian Forces are maintaining a military prison in Edmonton that sits empty much of the time because they need to keep up the capabilities.
• CRA officials told a Commons committee that they reached the settlement with KPMG clients because they likely wouldn’t have succeeded at trial.
• The Senate’s foreign affairs committee is calling on the government to exercise more cultural diplomacy around the world.
• The UNDRIP bill passed at the Senate committee yesterday after the chair imposed time limits on amendment interventions, to much Conservative caterwauling.
• Following accusations that he’s taking orders from Doug Ford, Andrew Scheer insists that he’s his “own man.” No, really.
• Scheer also assiduously avoids answering if he believes that extreme weather is as a result of climate change.
• An internal Conservative memo confirms that their strategy is to literally concern troll about the Paris climate targets.
• Doug Ford has ordered their anti-carbon price stickers to be displayed at gas stations just in time for the federal election. (But he’s staying out of it. Really!)
• There was an anti-Bill C-69 rally in Calgary yesterday, replete with the usual lies about the legislation, featuring signs that warned of “job genocide.” FFS.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column wonders if the Commons may rise early. (Hint: Probably not, and I still say they’ll have to sit in July).
• John Geddes wonders if the extreme weather over the past few years will finally wake voters up to climate change as an issue.
• Tabatha Southey calls out the moral bankruptcy of the Conservatives based on their invites to the justice committee’s study on online hate.
• Chris Selley notes that the CAQ may need to hold a referendum on electoral reform after all, despite initially promising to go ahead with PR without one.
• Kevin Carmichael sees affordable childcare as the solution needed to getting more women entrepreneurs to succeed.
• My column looks at how the Ontario Liberals dodged the bullet by voting against a one-member-one-vote leadership, but too many members still hear its siren song.

Odds and ends:

Programming Note: I’m off the rest of the week because I’m presenting at the Institute for the Study of the Canadian Crown conference at Massey College. That also means no video roundup this week for Patreon subscribers, but there will be a new YouTube episode. See you next week!

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