A series of incremental Senate
reforms proposed by prime minister Stephen Harper appear aimed at disrupting the upper House to such an extent that the country would be forced to deal with comprehensive Senate reform, says a prairie-based reform advocate.
Harper has proposed limiting Senate appointment terms to eight years, threatening reluctant senators with abolition if they do not approve his modest proposal.
And he told a Senate committee that more changes are on the way. In autumn, his minority government will propose legislation that would give Canadians a say in how senators are appointed.
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“Canadians will be watching to see whether the current Senate will make itself part of the process of change,” Harper warned in early September during the first appearance by a prime minister before a Senate committee in Canada’s 139 year history.
In Calgary at the Canada West Foundation, research director and Senate reform researcher Robert Roach saw a Harper plan at work.
The provinces are unwilling to open the constitution to negotiate broad Senate reform to meet the western demand for an elected, equal and effective Senate. However, Roach said Harper could create a powerful argument for comprehensive reform if he initiated changes through Parliament without provincial consent that saw some senators serving until age 75 and others there for just eight years, with some appointed and some elected.
“The policy seems to be to disrupt the institution, to make it a bit of a Frankenstein,” Roach said. “It may well be the strategy to make it such a mess that pressure will grow on the provinces to allow real change.”
At the moment, the appointed Senate is Liberal dominated after 13 years of Liberal rule and appointments. There are nine vacancies that Harper has not filled.
The Calgary-based prime minister, long an advocate of Senate reform, said the only deal he could imagine negotiating with the provinces if the reforms are not approved on Parliament Hill is abolition of the upper House.
Jim Munson, Liberal senator and former journalist and press secretary to former prime minister Jean Chrétien, suggested Harper was looking for a fight.
“There are critics who believe you would like nothing better than to fight an election on the backs of the Senate,” he said.
“Well, do not give me the opportunity,” Harper shot back.
Roach said the greatest impediments to real Senate reform are provinces that would see a more democratically legitimate and regionally representative Senate as a threat to their growing role in the federation. Their unanimous consent would be required.
While western provinces are under-represented in a chamber designed when their populations were small, Quebec and Atlantic provinces are overrepresented because their share of the national population has shrunk since provincial Senate seat numbers were fixed in the constitution.
“Provinces that stand to lose are not willing to see the debate opened, Roach said. The foundation has for years advocated incremental changes at the federal level because constitutional change seems almost impossible unless a crisis was created.
“I think the approach Harper is taking is the only one he can take if any change is to come right now.”
Harper told senators that change is coming after years of false promises by previous prime ministers because a modern democracy demands it.
“It has become a rite of passage for aspiring leaders and prime ministers to promise Senate reform on their way to the top,” he said.
“The promises are usually made in Western Canada. These statements of intent are warmly received by party activists, editorial writers and ordinary people but once elected, Senate reform quickly falls to the bottom of the government’s agenda. Years of delay on Senate reform must come to an end and it will. The Senate must change and we intend to make it happen.”
