Respect will of MPs
With his appointment last week of nine new independent senators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is delivering on his promise to rejuvenate the formerly partisan and scandal-plagued Senate.
The nine will not only sit as independents in the upper chamber, they are the first to be recommended to the prime minister by an arm’s-length advisory board based on their merits, not party ties. Indeed, they were selected from more than 2,700 people who applied for the 21 vacancies. Another 12 are to be named soon.
The process seemed to have worked admirably. None of the new appointees are Liberal party hacks or bagmen. Instead new members, such as human-rights activist Marilou McPhedran, women’sissues expert Nancy Hartling, Mi’kmaw First Nations adviser Daniel Christmas and social worker Wanda Thomas Bernard, bring a diverse range of experience that should invigorate the work of the Senate.
So far, so good. Now the hard part: ensuring that the newly constitute Senate works effectively and ultimately respects the will of elected members of Parliament in the House of Commons.
That will be more challenging than it has been in the past when senators were named along party lines and could be “whipped” into line. But when Trudeau makes his next 12 appointments, independents will hold a plurality in the 105-seat chamber for the first time.
Because they don’t have to toe a party line, the new senators may be tempted to challenge the Commons when controversial bills come before them. They should resist that temptation.
For guidance on how far they can flex their independent muscle, new senators — indeed all senators — need only look back at the emotional and fractious debate last spring on physician-assisted suicide.
When the bill came before the Senate, some senators wanted to expand the access it gave to medically assisted dying, so they sent an amended version back to the Commons.
Trudeau, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Health Minister Jane Philpott refused to accept the amendment, pitting the two houses against each other.
When it was sent back to the Senate without the changes requested, many senators were disappointed. But in the end they voted, reluctantly but rightly, to defer to the elected Commons.
Sen. David Tkachuk, a Conservative, summed it up well when he said: “We have done our job and although it breaks my heart, I am going to continue doing my duty by voting for the bill as sent back by the people’s representatives.”
He got the balance right. Trudeau’s newly appointed senators should listen and learn. A fundamental democratic value — that our country is run by elected representatives, not appointed ones — depends on it.
New senators must resist the temptation to thwart the resolve of elected members of Parliament