The federal Conservative government, facing opposition from political opponents and some provinces, has decided to submit its Senate reform proposals to the Supreme Court for an opinion on legality.
It means even modest reforms proposed in the Senate Reform Act tabled in 2011 will be on hold for as much as two years until the Supreme Court rules.
The bill proposes that provinces have the right, but not the obligation, to pass legislation allowing voters to elect senators-in-waiting. The prime minister could then pick them when a vacancy occurs or ignore them.
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Only Alberta has elected senators so far, and Harper has appointed three of them.
The bill also would set nine-year limits on Senate terms for anyone appointed after 2008. Currently, the constitution allows senators to serve until they are 75.
It means that Denise Batters from Regina, one of prime minister Stephen Harper’s latest appointments, could serve in the Senate until 2045.
The proposals are far less than what the Reform party roots of the Conservative party wanted in their call for an elected, effective and equal Senate.
In power, they have found legal and political roadblocks, so in the face of political and provincial opposition, Harper is trying to do as much as he thinks Parliament can do on its own without provincial approval and a constitutional change.
“Our government believes that the Senate must change in order to reach its full potential as a democratic institution serving Canadians,” democratic reform minister of state Tim Uppal from Edmonton said Feb. 1 on Parliament Hill when he announced the court reference.
As part of its platform when the party received a majority in 2011, there is a popular mandate for Senate reform, he said, “and today we are taking action to further our goal of a more democratic, effective and representative Senate.”
The Liberal party argues that any Senate reform must come with provincial approval since the Senate was created in part to represent provincial interests on Parliament Hill.
The opposition New Democrats support abolishing the Senate, although that too would require provincial consent.
Meanwhile, with no legislative or legal progress in sight, Harper has been doing what prime ministers always have done — filling vacant seats with party partisans.
Since taking office in 2006 with a promise not to appoint senators, Harper has appointed 53 to the 106-member Upper Chamber.
He says they all agree with his Senate reform proposals.
He inherited a Senate with a strong Liberal majority after 13 years of Liberal government appointments and in seven years has created an overwhelming Conservative majority — 53 to 36 with more appointments to come in the next year.
