Building a better Senate

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. A little hackneyed, but it’s not so far off the refrain Conservative Sen. Don Plett is singing today. If only former party leader and prime minister Stephen Harper had filled those vacant Senate seats, the Manitoba senator says, the Tories would be secure in their majority standing in the Red Chamber.

But now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals are in the catbird seat, with 22 vacancies to fill, a sizable chunk of the 105-seat Senate that, when fully appointed, will swamp the Conservatives there. Three of Manitoba’s allotted six seats are empty.

But if Trudeau holds true to his pledge, the appointments will not be made to reward party loyalists, fallen MPs and bagmen. Last year, amid a brewing scandal that mired the Senate in the stench of entitlement, he kicked all Liberal senators out of the party’s caucus. They continue to meet as a group but have no formal relationship with their elected counterparts and the Liberal agenda in the House of Commons.

The prime minister intends to set up a non-partisan and independent process to choose appointees, chosen on merit, not as a patronage payback. An advisory panel will refer names to the prime minister, who retains power to appoint.

The Liberals are not out to abolish the Senate – they say it’s a waste of time trying to convince resolute provinces to co-operate in a radical reform or abolition. It will take careful, incremental change, they say, to focus the Senate back on the job of sober second thought.

Canadians, therefore, are stuck with the chamber that has fallen further into disrepute as the expenses scandal draws out – Sen. Mike Duffy’s corruption and fraud trial continues, and a number of his colleagues found to have wrongly claimed expenses are fighting orders to repay the funds.

The sordid soap opera has only reinforced the popular opinion of the Senate as a place where party players get to live out their lives on the taxpayers’ tab. It has also been a colossal distraction for a body that can play, and has played, a useful role. Industrious senators who come to the chamber with a sense of purpose can easily prove they’ve earned their keep.

Harper, however, could not see past the rot and the public scandal that swallowed a number of his own appointees. Petulantly, he decided to stop filling vacancies, to let the body responsible for checking the power of the House wither and die by attrition. He was the kid who, having lost the game, takes the ball and sulks on home.

Now Plett finds the courage to publicly complain. The obvious concern is losing the sway Conservatives have held for years. More usefully, however, he promised he and his Tory colleagues would not obstruct the Liberal government’s agenda for the sake of a partisan fight.

That’s a good thing, because Trudeau, in cutting ties with Liberal senators, upended the traditional means by which a government shepherds its bills smoothly through the upper chamber. The Senate, for all its stink, holds real power, able to veto legislation as well as amend it.

The new government has work to do to quickly put in place a new process for gathering meritorious recommendations for appointments. Forging a workable relationship with an “independent” Senate, with its constitutional powers intact, will be doubly complicated. That’s quite the to-do list. Best get on it, Mr. Trudeau.