May 18 dawned in Ottawa as a cold drizzly day on the 45th anniversary of what could have been the most deadly and murderous day in Canadian political history.
But in a town with much political oxygen but little political memory, no mention was made of May 18, 1966. Instead, the attention was on appointment of Stephen Harper’s new cabinet and the makeup of the first Conservative majority government in almost 20 years.
Briefly, let’s return to May 18, 1966. That day, a disturbed and disillusioned Albertan named Paul Joseph Chartier planned to heave a bomb onto the floor of the House of Commons to protest the partisanship and corruption of politicians in an age of bitter fights between Liberal prime minister Lester Pearson and Progressive Conservative leader John Diefenbaker.
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It was a time of government scandal and national disgust at politicians. Chartier had prepared a speech to read from the speaker’s chair.
That day, the House of Commons was packed with two generations of political leaders who could have been wiped out if Chartier’s plan had worked and the bomb had exploded between the front benches – Pearson, Diefenbaker, T.C. Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, John Turner and- Jean Chretien were all there that day.
But an inexperienced clerk in a hardware store in Hull, Que., made a mistake that morning. Chartier asked for a slow-burning fuse that would take three minutes and the clerk sold him a 30 second fuse.
Chartier sat in the visitors’ gallery of the House of Commons, slipped into a nearby washroom to light the fuse on the bomb he would throw and then blew himself up.
Ironically, he died in the arms of Alberta Conservative MP Hugh Horner, a physician who had answered the call of whether there was a doctor in the House.
Fast forward 45 years and another disgruntled Albertan threw another bomb into Parliament Hill, not the deadly kind but of the political variety.
Moments after announcing his cabinet and answering a few questions from journalists, Harper’s office announced that three recently defeated Conservative candidates were being given taxpayer-funded jobs as senators. Even worse, two of them had been senators, resigned to run for Parliament, were rejected by voters and still ended up getting secure jobs for at least eight years.
Fabian Manning (Newfoundland) and Larry Smith (Montreal), come on down.
Even many of Harper’s usual supporters ran for cover.
As a Reformer, he opposed Senate appointments and advocated Senate elections.
Even by the patronage standards of the Liberals who never passed an opportunity to stuff Liberals onto Senate seats, government boards or courts, this seemed egregious.
The prime minister’s office did the best it could. These appointments give Conservatives the Senate majority they need to pass Senate reform legislation that the Liberals had blocked, the senators agreed to stay no more than eight years and to run when senators are elected …blah blah blah.
Of course, Harper realizes that these odourous appointments will not be remembered 53 months from now when he is up for re-election again.
But if he does not use this newly created majority to really change the Senate … that will be remembered.
