Reform Party MPs used the best Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera tactics they could dream up last week to try to embarrass Liberals into senate reform and Liberal senator Andrew Thompson into coming to work.
The scheme, to no one’s surprise, did not succeed on either count.
But most people (aside from Thompson, prime minister Jean ChrŽtien and a gaggle of uncomfortable-looking Liberal senators) seemed to enjoy themselves anyway.
The antics included a Mexican mariachi band playing in the Senate foyer, sombrero-wearing Reform MPs handing out Mexican food and a hand-drawn Reform map showing Thompson how to find the Senate, where he is paid to work but rarely shows up.
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At the centre of the follies is Thompson, a 73-year-old, 30-year veteran of the Senate who has attended just 14 sitting days since 1990 but continues to draw a salary of $64,400 and a $10,100 tax-free allowance.
For most of the year, he lives in Mexico.
There have been opposition calls for his removal from the Senate and last week, a Senate committee began to look at how and whether that could be done.
In the House of Commons, prime minister ChrŽtien said he wished Thompson would quit, but he cannot force him out. The Liberals already have kicked him out of their caucus after the public relations disaster began to unfold.
And in response to persistent efforts by Reform MPs to use the Thompson affair as a hook to press for Senate reform and Upper House elections, ChrŽtien said it could not be done without a constitutional amendment.
The scene played out in front of the Senate chamber came Feb. 10 on the day the Senate had demanded Thompson show up or lose his salary.
That morning, Reform issued a “welcome back Senator Siesta” notice. Reform said, tongue-in-cheek, that they were trying to be helpful.
“In case he forgot where he works, we have produced this easy-to-use map.”
Sen.Thompson did not show up. The senators gave him an extended deadline, until this week.
Reform MP Deborah Grey already had made up her mind. “Canadians are sick and tired of people who do not work for their salary,” she said
