Cracks starting to appear in party’s united front
OT TAWA — They’re Liberal senators — and there’s nothing Justin Trudeau can do about it.
The group of senators jettisoned from his caucus this week pushed back against the Liberal leader Thursday, saying he couldn’t stop any of them from calling themselves Liberals.
“Justin Trudeau has no authority or authorization to determine my status in the chamber. I determine that,” said Sen. George Furey.
Sen. Terry Mercer, a former party president, was blunt: “Mr. Trudeau removed me from the Liberal caucus. He didn’t remove me from the Liberal party.”
It hinted at an emerging crack within the Liberal party as Trudeau tries to distance himself from the embattled upper chamber and entrench a position between the NDP and Conservatives on the future of the Senate.
Many of those senators emerged from a closed-door meeting on Parliament Hill on Thursday, reaffirming their decision to sit as the Senate Liberal caucus, using the party’s name against the wishes of Trudeau’s inner circle, and after Trudeau said Wednesday there were no longer Liberal senators. (The Senate’s official website listed all 32 senators as Liberals.)
W hen asked about Trudeau’s pronouncement, Sen. James Cowan, the leader of the Senate Liberal caucus, told reporters: “You’ll have to ask him (Trudeau) about that.”
“I am a Liberal senator and I remain a Liberal senator,” Cowan said.
Caucus sources expected Trudeau’s team to exact retribution for keeping the Liberal name, but questioned whether there was anything politically they could do.
They also suggested Trudeau didn’t do enough homework on the rules of the Senate, which Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella ruled allow the senators to identify as Liberals.
But how many of them remain as Senate Liberals is questionable. Insiders say at least three senators — Paul Massicotte, Larry Campbell and George Baker—are ready to sit as independents. There still may be more, sources suggested.
“There’s a couple that’s not clear yet,” Sen. David Smith told reporters. “But I don’t know of any that have said they’re not going to sit within our caucus.”
The Liberals in the upper chamber also face the threat of losing red-chamber funds.
Senior Conservative senators signalled Thursday morning they wanted to review the money given to the Senate opposition, including funds to the opposition leader’s office that is in line for a $200,000 funding boost.
“We have to look at the whole issue of how public funds are expended in the Senate — completely: opposition, government, the whole thing,” said Conservative Sen. Marjory LeBreton. “This is uncharted.”