Note on posting this article:
I found this article on the canoe.ca website. The article was written by Peter Worthington and the copyright appears to belong to the Toronto Sun. To contact me about this posting send an e-mail to andrewREMOVETHISatREMOVEgormanDOTcc.
-issachar.
Tue, March 29, 2005
Manning had right idea
An elected Senate has never been more relevant than it is today, says Peter Worthington
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- For the Toronto Sun
It was Preston Manning, when he headed the defunct Reform Party (before it metamorphized into the Canadian Alliance which blended into the Conservative Party of Canada) who advocated a Triple-E Senate: Elected, Effective, Equal.
Never has that proposal seemed more relevant than after Prime Minister Paul Martin's recent appointment of nine new senators -- seven of them Liberals. Sort of patronage lottery winners whose subservience is rewarded with $116,000 a year and perks until they are 75.
They'll be expected to vote along party lines.
Manning's Triple-E Senate might have saved that archaic institution of, well, mostly freeloaders. "Elected" would have eliminated the "partisan" aspect of the senate and introduced accountability. "Effective" would have meant regional interests rather than party representation.
"Equal" would have meant each province having the same number of senators, whose "sober second thoughts" on legislation would offset the powerful Ontario/Quebec axis that dominates the Commons.
Maybe someday there'll be a Triple-E Senate, but not under Paul Martin who is a man of bland imagination, little inspiration, and stunning mediocrity whose main virtue is that he's not Jean Chretien.
What's disappointing in his Senate choices is that he didn't have the courage or independence to appoint those whom Albertans had elected for the job -- pure pettiness and petulance. Both the Toronto Sun and National Post editorially declare the appointment of Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire was "inspired," while the Globe calls him "a celebrity appointee." This is a bit odd.
Dallaire's a decent man
Dallaire is a decent man who, put bluntly, has been a failure except at self-promotion. He failed as a military leader in Rwanda, failed to halt the genocide, and by his own admission was the wrong guy to be put in command. His emotional trauma was a consequence of his failure.
To qualify for the Senate, Dallaire had to be a land owner so he purchased property in Quebec -- rather as Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul had to marry before she could accept her appointment.
Former defence minister Art Eggleton (fired for giving an undeserved $36,000 contract to his girlfriend of the moment for writing a short report) is rewarded by a Senate appointment for giving up his safe Commons seat to Ken Dryden -- worth a couple of million bucks of taxpayers' dough to Art. The others are largely unknown to most of us -- not that we much care. Where Martin looks bad and blatantly partisan for a PM of all the people, is in Alberta where by a 3-1 ratio people are against the Liberals, his Senate appointments are 2-1 in favour of Liberals.
One Alberta appointee is a Joe Clark Tory -- hardly a gesture towards national unity! Which brings us back to the need for an elected Senate, all the more necessary now that Canada has switched from being a parliamentary democracy to a constitutional one.
We hoped for better
In the U.S., each state has two elected senators, representing equality between big and small states -- something badly needed in Canada where the West routinely gets shafted, and the Maritimes are viewed by Ottawa as votes to buy with bribes and payoffs.
Maybe someday the rest of the country will react against the inequality and lack of fair play. We all hoped for better from Paul Martin after Chretien, but in vain.
And Stephen Harper has largely been a disappointment in his rush to occupy what he thinks is the ideological "centre," but which is really more of the same without convictions. Let Harper at least revive the Triple-E Senate -- or is that too right wing for him and the CPC?