Prime Minister Paul Martin thumbed his nose at Albertans by ignoring our elected senators.
After promising to deal with Canada’s democratic deficit, Martin gets away with ridiculous doublespeak: “I don’t believe in reforming the Senate piecemeal,” knowing that reform only comes “piecemeal,” otherwise it is called revolution.
Just as surely as Florida’s Terri Schiavo is being starved to death, Martin has intentionally killed Senate reform.
In so doing Martin has killed Albertans last vestiges of hope of ever reforming a corrupt and over-centralized Ottawa.
Say what you will about past prime minister Pierre Trudeau, unlike Martin, he at least had the decency to acknowledge the West’s existence, even if he acknowledged it by giving us the finger.
It appears Martin is sounding Senate reform’s death knell just when Canadians are most receptive to the idea.
Since its inception more then 20 years ago over Alberta kitchen coffee tables, the idea of the Triple-E Senate—equal, elected and effective—has travelled across Canada, primarily by word of mouth, until academics and even Maritime premiers realize Canada desperately needs the Triple-E.
According to a survey by the Canada West Foundation last fall, 87% of Albertans support the Triple-E, and supposedly where the Triple-E is a “hard sell”—Ontario, an incredible 72% want a Senate that is both elected and equal.
But it isn’t just the Liberals. The Conservatives also have stuck their knives into Senate reform. The new Conservative party and even previous Reform-Alliance gave up the ghost of actually reforming the Senate a long time ago, by discreetly dropping any mention of the Triple-E Senate from their policy books.
At the recent Conservative convention, Stephen Harper did mention Senate reform in his keynote speech, but again Triple-E was avoided.
Unelected Tory Senator David Angus revealed his “sophistication” in the pages of the Western Standard earlier this year, when he predicted naive westerners would achieve sophistication equal to his own by spending more time in Montreal.
Some may recall Peter MacKay’s tantrum fairly early during the Conservative convention. He was worried grassroots numbers might prevail, but he need not have fretted, Angus’ Liberal-Tory, same-old-story Montreal sophistication did indeed rub off on Conservative party delegates.
After a weekend in Montreal, not only did Conservatives drop the Triple-E, they also dumped the Alliance tradition of deciding the leader through one- member, one-vote, as well as deciding their own chamber of sober thought—the national council—the same way.
There are a handful of senators, such as Senator Anne Cools, who crossed the floor from the Liberals to the Conservatives last June, who remain courageous in actually providing sober second thought.
But generally speaking, the Senate is where good social-liberals are put out to pasture. So, like Tory Senator David Angus says, I guess we need to get with the patronage program.
Become a good social-liberal. Join the right religion—secularism. Espouse the pre-approved Liberal doctrine: “Group rights good, individual rights bad.”
Follow the formula and you too just might make the senatorial “Liberal Idol” short list—next time around.
Copyright ? 2005 Janet L. Jackson.
Columnist for the Calgary Sun, Janet L. Jackson is also Executive Director of the Canadian Conservative Union. Through her work with conservative political action committees, Jackson has been an effective and prominent voice for preserving traditional marriage, religious freedom and free speech.
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