Senator refers to NDP MP as ‘useless and powerless’
New Democrats call for parliamentary retribution for ‘incredibly personal attack’
OTTAWA — A Conservative senator lashed out Friday at the NDP MP who represents his riding, saying her constituents find her “useless and powerless,” and suggesting she never would have been elected without “spontaneous sympathy” in Quebec for Jack Layton.
Sen. Jean-Guy Dagenais’ letter stoked the ire of the New Democrats, who quickly went into the House of Commons to demand parliamentary retribution for what they argued was an “incredibly personal attack” on Terrebonne-Blainville MP Charmaine Borg.
Dagenais said a taxpayer-funded mailer from Borg — his MP — about abolishing the Senate made him write the letter. He said he found the flyer in his mailbox when he arrived home Thursday.
The flyer was part of a petition to abolish the Senate. It touches on the number of senators under investigation, and says the actions of former Conservative senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin have plunged the upper chamber into disgrace.
It ends by saying power should be placed in the hands of elected MPs.
“Since you think senators are useless,” Dagenais wrote in French, “let me inform you that since the election of New Democrats in Quebec, I’ve been asked many times by citizens and organizations in your riding to intervene on files … When I told them to ask their MP, they all tell me that you’re useless and powerless to address their concerns.”
NDP House leader Nathan Cullen said the letter upset several female NDP MPs.
He said while politicians expect some “personal swipes” as part of the job, Dagenais’ letter was “misogynistic” and “crossed every line I can think of.” “What an oaf,” Cullen said. “We’re not going to allow this to stand. What signal does this send? This is just beyond the normal political discourse for me.”
It was the latest in a series of testy exchanges between members of the upper chamber and the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, who have used an ongoing spending scandal as support for the NDP’s position on abolishing the Senate.
The attacks on the red chamber’s legitimacy and the credibility of its members ramped up this week, with the Senate Speaker denouncing what he saw as an “unfounded personal attack” on him by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and the Liberal Senate leader questioning Mulcair’s tactics as well.