With the Canadian economy in freefall, shedding more than 70,000 jobs last month, prime minister Stephen Harper is poised to launch a small, targeted, pre-Christmas job creation program.
It will be aimed at a select group of Canadians – friends of the Conservative party who believe in Senate reform.
Harper was expected to soon appoint 18 Senators including one in Saskatchewan.
The job pays $130,400 per year and usually requires no more than three days of work in Ottawa during the eight months or so each year that Parliament is sitting. The job can last until age 75.
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Although Harper has resisted Senate appointments in hopes that provinces would agree to hold elections to pick Senate candidates and the existing Senate would pass some legislation aimed at relatively minor reforms, a senior government official said last week appointments are necessary now to keep the Senate functioning.
The Conservative caucus in the 105-member Senate has dwindled to 20 as retirees have not been replaced.
The official said provinces have not been moving to create Senate election laws and the existing Liberal majority in the Senate has “no appetite” for reform, including a government proposal to limit terms.
He said the core qualification is that the new appointees must believe in and be willing to vote for Senate reform, including an elected Senate.
He said it is important to fill the vacancies in case the Conservative government falls in a confidence vote at the end of January and a replacement Liberal-led coalition government then filled the seats with people opposed to Senate reform.
Opposition MPs denounced the planned move as illegitimate and hypocritical.
Liberal Carolyn Bennett said that since Harper had to adjourn Parliament to avoid losing a confidence vote and the ability to govern, he has no right to be stacking the Senate with party friends.
“It’s appalling,” she said Dec. 11. “He has no moral authority to do anything.”
The New Democratic Party, which favours abolishing the Senate, accused Harper of violating his own promise not to appoint unelected senators.
“Every day this prime minister goes a step further in showing that he’ll do anything to maintain his grip on power from shutting down Parliament to stacking the unelected Senate,” Hamilton MP David Christopherson said in a statement issued by the party.
The government official noted that in addition to the 18 existing vacancies, 11 more senators must retire next year. He conceded that with the Liberals holding a 58 to 20 advantage in the Senate after years of Liberal government and appointments, an additional 18 Conservatives will not give the government control. “But we’ll be 18 votes closer.”
The only prairie appointment among the 18 will be a Saskatchewan senator to replace southern Saskatchewan Conservative and farmer Len Gustafson who retired in November.
