{"id":194127,"date":"2018-12-16T01:25:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T06:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=194127"},"modified":"2018-12-16T01:25:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T06:25:23","slug":"trudeau-to-make-it-harder-for-future-pm-to-reverse-senate-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/16\/trudeau-to-make-it-harder-for-future-pm-to-reverse-senate-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau to make it harder for future PM to reverse Senate reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cWe’re going to try to make it fair,\u201d Trudeau said in a year-end roundtable interview with\u00a0the\u00a0Ottawa bureau of\u00a0The\u00a0Canadian\u00a0Press.\u00a0\u201dWe’re going to try to do it before\u00a0the\u00a0election.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: Justin Trudeau\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 Justin Trudeau says his government hopes to make legal changes that will cement his transformation of\u00a0the\u00a0Senate into a more independent, non-partisan chamber, making it harder for a future prime minister to turn back\u00a0the\u00a0clock.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0prime minister says his government will amend\u00a0the\u00a0Parliament of Canada Act \u2014\u00a0the\u00a0law that spells out\u00a0the\u00a0powers and privileges of MPs and senators \u2014 to better reflect\u00a0the\u00a0new reality in\u00a0theupper house, where most senators now sit as independents unaffiliated with any political party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to try to make it fair,\u201d Trudeau said in a year-end roundtable interview with\u00a0the\u00a0Ottawa bureau of\u00a0The\u00a0Canadian\u00a0Press.\u00a0\u201dWe’re going to try to do it before\u00a0the\u00a0election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing it before next fall’s election is critically important for independent senators, who fear Trudeau’s reforms could be easily reversed should\u00a0the\u00a0Liberals fail to win re-election.<\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has said that if becomes prime minister, he would revert to\u00a0the\u00a0previous practice of making overtly partisan appointments, naming only Conservatives to\u00a0theupper house.<\/p>\n

Trudeau kicked senators out of\u00a0the\u00a0Liberal caucus in 2014. Since taking office in 2015, he’s named only senators recommended by an arm’s-length advisory body in a bid to return\u00a0the\u00a0Senate to its intended role as an independent chamber of sober second thought.<\/p>\n

Of\u00a0the\u00a0105 senators, 54 are now independents who have banded together for greater clout in\u00a0the\u00a0Independent Senators’ Group. Another 31 are Conservatives, 10 are Liberal-independents and 10 are unaffiliated.\u00a0The\u00a0Conservatives are\u00a0the\u00a0only remaining overtly partisan group in\u00a0the\u00a0chamber.<\/p>\n

Yet\u00a0the\u00a0Parliament of Canada Act recognizes only two partisan caucuses in\u00a0the\u00a0Senate:\u00a0the\u00a0governing party caucus and\u00a0the\u00a0Opposition caucus, both of which are entitled to research funds, dedicated time to debate bills, memberships on committees and a role in\u00a0the\u00a0day-to-day decisions about Senate business, such as when to adjourn debate.<\/p>\n

Senators have agreed on\u00a0the\u00a0fly to some accommodation of\u00a0the\u00a0growing ranks of independents, giving them some research funds and committee roles. But\u00a0the\u00a0leadership of\u00a0the\u00a0ISG has argued that their role must be explicitly spelled out and guaranteed in\u00a0the\u00a0Parliament of Canada Act. And, since\u00a0the\u00a0change would involve allocating financial resources, they say it can’t be initiated by\u00a0theSenate, only by\u00a0the\u00a0government in\u00a0the\u00a0House of Commons.<\/p>\n

Sen. Raymonde St. Germain, deputy leader of\u00a0the\u00a0ISG, said amending\u00a0the\u00a0act is\u00a0the\u00a0only way to give independent senators a \u201cpermanent voice\u201d and to \u201csecure this essential reform for an independent and non-partisan Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0reform that Prime Minister Trudeau very courageously announced and implemented … has to be completed,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cIt won’t come from within\u00a0the\u00a0Senate.\u00a0The\u00a0only way to complete it, to have it finished, is to amend\u00a0the\u00a0Parliament of Canada Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau said he’s pleased with\u00a0the\u00a0way\u00a0the\u00a0reformed Senate has operated, even though independent-minded senators are now more prone to amending government bills, which has slowed down\u00a0thelegislative process somewhat and occasionally sparked fears \u2014 unrealized thus far \u2014 that\u00a0the\u00a0Senate could defeat legislation outright.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians have been able to see\u00a0the\u00a0benefits and\u00a0the\u00a0thoughtful amendments and engagement they’ve had with bills in a way that I think has been very positive. I think removing partisanship in a significant way from\u00a0the\u00a0Senate has been good for our democracy, good for institutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for Scheer, Trudeau said: \u201cIf he really wants to go back to\u00a0the\u00a0kind of partisanship and patronage that we were able to do away with, well, that’s something that he’s going to have to explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just this week, however, Trudeau appointed two new senators with strong Liberal connections: a former Liberal premier of Yukon, Pat Duncan, and Nova Scotia mental-health expert Stanley Kutcher, who ran for\u00a0the\u00a0Liberals in\u00a0the\u00a02011 election and lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think that membership in any given political party should ban them from being able to be thoughtful, independent senators who are not answerable to me but answerable to\u00a0the\u00a0values they have,\u201d Trudeau said, adding, \u201cI’m sure we have also appointed people who’ve donated to\u00a0the\u00a0NDP or donated to\u00a0the\u00a0Conservative party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservatives have repeatedly questioned just how non-partisan\u00a0the\u00a0independent senators really are, noting that most seem to share Trudeau’s values \u2014 a charge Trudeau did not deny.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to pick people who are completely offline with where I think my values or many Canadians’ values are,\u201d he said. \u201cA future prime minister of a different political stripe will certainly be able to appoint people … who might have a slightly different ideological bent. I think that’s going to naturally happen in our system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he said\u00a0the\u00a0institution is better for\u00a0the\u00a0fact that most senators are not answerable to\u00a0the\u00a0prime minister and don’t sit in partisan caucuses \u201cto plot political strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Justin Trudeau says his government hopes to make legal changes that will cement his transformation of\u00a0the\u00a0Senate into a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":185389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-joan-bryden","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}