HUGHES ON HEADLINES: Is the Canadian Senate Necessary?
Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes
Give’em enough rope: Senators doing a great job of showing why we don’t need the place
The recent investigation into questionable housing allowance claims for Senators has put the Red Chamber under a spotlight that leaves many Canadians wondering how useful the institution really is. One thing is certain; those who gain the most from the work of Senators are the political parties that hand out these jobs-for-life.
Long held up as a bastion for sober second thought, the truth is the Senate is an echo chamber for the Conservatives and Liberals in the House of Commons. The only legislation the place quashes are opposition bills like the late Jack Layton’s Climate Change Act. That bill worked its way through a minority House of Commons only to be killed by the Conservative dominated Senate without even being debated once. How is that even remotely democratic?
Perhaps what irks Canadians the most is that Senators are handed jobs with security and pay that most of us could never hope for. As political appointees, their only allegiance is to the party they represent and not the region they are supposed to work for.
Here’s a quick question most people can’t answer- who is your Senator? People aren’t aware because they have no connection with the Senate – beyond the taxes they pay that keeps the place afloat. Senator’s do not maintain offices outside the parliamentary precinct and do none of the hands-on work that MPs do in their constituency offices. Apart from a 90 day work year, these unelected and unaccountable appointees have no responsibility to go along with their $130,000 a year salary. That number doesn’t factor in office and travel budgets which balloon the cost of the Senate to about 90 million dollars a year. It is the ultimate exercise in pomp, ceremony, and most of all, waste.
Since being elected Stephen Harper has appointed 57 failed candidates, party bagmen, and loyalists to the Senate. Taxpayers are picking up the tab so these people can work on behalf of the Conservative Party first and foremost. This will be the legacy of a Prime Minister who claimed he would not appoint unelected Senators. That, of course, is what he said when he was in opposition. Now he is the man who appointed Patrick Brazeau.
The scandal that has seized the Senate is a good thing. The more Canadians become outraged by the details, the more they come to the conclusion that it’s time to abolish the place. It is a throw-back to another time and was designed as a playpen for the privileged based on Britain’s House of Lords. Defenders of the Senate claim that constitutional wrangling would make it near impossible to get the provinces onside. That is the reasoning of people who want to protect their own good thing. The trajectory of public opinion polls or a strong mandate from a referendum would surely motivate the most reluctant Premiers who, unlike Senators, have to face the voters from time to time.
With the economic difficulties we have experienced recently, most Canadians are being asked to accept a little less from the federal government. Stephen Harper claims he cut public financing for political parties but doesn’t mention that public money is still flowing through the Senate for the privileged and the powerful. Maybe it’s time for the man who stacked the Senate to walk the walk himself.
