Dan Hays has been given a new pulpit from which to preach the interests of his province and the agriculture industry.
Hays, a 66-year-old rancher, lawyer and senator from Alberta, has been appointed Liberal opposition leader in the Senate, a delicate job in a new Parliament where the Conservatives hold a minority government based in the House of Commons but the Liberals hold a large majority in the Senate after 12 uninterrupted years of Liberal appointments.
It means Liberal senators could defeat any Conservative legislation that comes from the Commons.
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They won’t, but Hays said trying to find the balance between offering constructive criticism on how to improve legislation and being seen as unelected obstructionists will be a major part of his job.
“Constitutionally, we have the power to act but the fact that we are unelected must temper any temptation to use that power too much,” he said. “We have to be responsive to the perceptions people have of an unelected house (of Parliament) thwarting the will of an elected house.”
To accept his new party assignment, Hays must step down from his job as Senate speaker once the new Parliament opens.
He said the opposition leader’s role, which will involve leading off the Senate question period every day and probing Conservative senators on the policies and priorities of their elected brethren in the Commons, will give him a chance to champion Alberta’s interests in natural resources and Senate reform.
Since his Senate appointment by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau in 1984, Hays has chaired the Senate agriculture and forestry committee and the energy committee and has acted as deputy Liberal leader in the Senate before his speaker’s assignment.
“One of the constitutional roles of the Senate is regional representation and I have tried to use my position to further the interests of Alberta’s producers through the years when there have been few elected Liberal voices from Alberta in Parliament,” he said.
Hays’ Liberalism and agricultural interests have deep roots.
His father, Harry Hays, was a Liberal agriculture minister in the 1960s and with his son Dan, operated a ranch southwest of Calgary that featured cattle, crops and an egg operation.
From 1982 until 2000, Dan Hays was the sole owner of the more than seven section farm.
He sold it in 2000 and now owns a bit of land and 200 head of cattle that are kept at another ranch.
“I miss owning the ranch but I’m getting to be an age and none of my kids were interested in taking it,” he said.
