Tory Senators extend olive branch

OTTAWA — Conservative senators don’t plan to be an ideological roadblock to the Liberal government’s legislative agenda.

Sen. Claude Carignan, the Conservative leader in the upper chamber, said Tuesday that his senators will look for ways to improve legislation coming from the House of Commons and won’t abuse their majority status in the upper chamber to thwart Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s program.

The Conservatives hold 47 seats in the Senate, making them the largest caucus in the 105-seat chamber. Some longtime Conservatives, who remember what it was like when Stephen Harper first formed government in 2006 and faced a Liberaldominated Senate, have suggested they won’t make Trudeau’s life easy.

Carignan said that wasn’t the intention of the Conservative senators following a meeting this month where they elected him leader and chose the rest of their leadership after returning to the opposition benches for the first time in almost a decade.

“We don’t want to obstruct and [be] an ideological opposition,” he said. ”

Trudeau severed formal parliamentary ties to the Senate last year, when he dropped all senators from the Liberal national caucus. Those senators remained Liberal Party members and talked of helping local candidates in the federal election campaign.

The decision has meant that the Liberals, now in government, have no formal representative in the upper chamber. The Liberals have not said whether Trudeau will anoint a sitting senator to the job, appoint someone to one of the 22 vacant seats, or leave the situation as it is.