Senate bloc could hamper Trudeau
GROUP PART OF EFFORT TO ENSURE VARIOUS ‘REGIONAL INTERESTS’ ARE PROPERLY REPRESENTED
The formation of a new Senate bloc could further complicate efforts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pass legislation this winter, adding a new layer of unpredictability to the upper chamber.
A group of 11 senators on Monday announced they would be forming a new caucus known as the Canadian Senators Group (CSG), part of an effort to ensure that various “regional interests” are properly represented in the Senate.
“Members of the CSG want to see this founding principle maintained and respected so that the will of the majority does not always trump regional interests,” the group said in a press release. “CSG Senators are free to take positions and vote on legislation independently of personal political affiliations and each other.”
It is another step in the evolution of the Senate under Trudeau’s effort to make it a less partisan chamber. Previously, the Senate was divided between a government caucus and an official opposition caucus. Now, with the appointment of independent senators, the Senate is splintering into smaller groups.
The newly-formed CSG includes three senators from Alberta, two from Ontario, and one each from B.C., Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Former Conservative Sen. Scott Tannas, who represents Alberta, will serve as interim leader. Quebec Sen. Josée Verner, also a former Conservative, will be deputy leader. Overall, it is made up of centrist or slightly conservative-leaning senators.
Other Alberta senators joining the group include Elaine McCoy and Doug Black, former members of the Independent Senators Group (ISG) who voted against key Liberal legislation last session. Black was among the most outspoken critics of the Trudeau government’s Bill C-69 and C-48, legislation that industry groups claim would critically injure the oil and gas industry. Both C-69, which expanded the environmental review process for major projects, and C-48, which banned oil tankers from docking on the northern coast of B.C., served as a sort of rallying cry in Alberta, where separatist angst has been running high.
“The resentment is deep as a well,” Black said in an interview. He said the group was not started as a result of the recent election, in which Trudeau won a minority government without capturing a single seat in Alberta or Saskatchewan. But he suggested the existence of the CSG will also force the government to consider more points of view.
“Now you’ve got to balance more interests — but I would say that is a great thing because it means more voices will have to be listened to,” he said.
The new caucus means the Senate membership is now split among the Canadian Senators Group (11 members), the Independent Senators Group (49 members), the Conservatives (26 members), the Liberals (nine members), and six non-affiliated senators. However, the Senate Liberals — who were ejected from the larger Liberal caucus by Trudeau in 2014 — will cease to be an official caucus in January, as Sen. Joseph Day must retire when he turns 75. A caucus must be at least nine members to get access to parliamentary budgets for research and administration, among other perks.
Former ISG Sen. Diane Griffin said she joined the CSG to promote a more “centrist viewpoint” in the Senate and to split the power between more independent caucuses. She was invited by Sen. Black around nine days ago to join the CSG. “This is a way of preparing for the future so we don’t end up with just two groups,” Griffin said.
Sources told the National Post the CSG would likely set a cap of no more than 25 members, providing more influence to individual senators within its caucus. The formation of the CSG also guarantees seats on Senate committees and provides more opportunities to direct questions toward the government representative in the upper chamber.
University of Waterloo Professor Emmett Macfarlane, who advised the government on its changes to the Senate appointment process and has studied how the new Senate has functioned so far, said he sees this new group as a natural progression.
“I think it was inevitable that we would start to see the ISG splinter a bit, because once the Conservative Party continued to dwindle, the independent senators would have to figure out a way to organize that wasn’t just one giant group or caucus,” he said. Macfarlane said he wouldn’t be surprised to see further splintering, such as a regional caucus or an Indigenous caucus — and perhaps a situation where senators belong to more than one caucus. “I suspect what we’ll see is an evolution towards multi-membership in different groups, perhaps even on a bill-to-bill basis,” he said.
He said the emergence of smaller groups likely means legislation proceeds more slowly through the chamber, at least for now. “But that might also go hand-in-hand with the Senate taking its function a lot more seriously than it used to,” he added.
A statement from outgoing Senate Conservative Leader Larry Smith — the Conservatives will elect a new Senate leader on Tuesday — sounded a warning over the move away from government and opposition caucuses. “The role of Official Opposition is an honourable one, and an institution that has and will serve the country well in the months and years to come,” Smith said. “Canada would be poorly served by diminishing the role of Official Opposition in the Senate Chamber.”
Other senators within the CSG include Robert Black (Ontario), Stephen Greene (Nova Scotia), David Richards (New Brunswick), Pamela Wallin (Saskatchewan), and Vernon White (Ontario).