Harper set to call for Senate’s end
Saskatchewan Premier Wall, who supports abolition, will be at PM’s side
TORONTO — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall are expected to appear together Friday in Regina to call for the abolition of the Senate, according to a source familiar with their plans.
Harper is scheduled to hold a news conference at the Saskatchewan legislature in the afternoon, where he will be joined by Wall.
Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor Wall’s office could be reached Thursday evening to confirm the announcement.
The Senate has been a constant thorn in the side of the prime minister, who has gone from railing against its lack of accountability and pushing for reform as a member of the opposition, to being tarnished by its excesses as a series of a scandals consumed Conservative members of the Upper Chamber in recent years.
Suspended Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy, who was appointed by Harper, is currently on trial on a total of 31 charges including multiple counts of fraud and breach of trust in relation to his Senate expenses.
Duffy was suspended along with fellow Conservative senators Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin in 2013 after questions about their expenses came to light.
More recently, Conservative Sen. Don Meredith was removed from the party caucus after allegations he had an affair with an underage girl.
Calling for abolition would mark a significant policy shift for the Conservatives, though one they have hinted at before.
During a 2007 speech to the Australian parliament, Harper said that if the Upper Chamber could not be reformed, there would be only one solution.
“Canadians understand that our Senate, as it stands today, must either change or — like the old upper houses of our provinces — vanish,” he said.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not act alone to kill the Senate — such a move would require the unanimous consent of all provinces.
One possible method would be via a plebiscite, an avenue former senator Hugh Segal twice proposed while serving in the Senate from 2005 to 2014.
“The question should be put honourably to Canadians — we should afford them the chance to have their say. Otherwise, the system rolls on and the general cynicism will spread to other things, which is not a good thing for our democracy,” he said.
An Angus Reid Institute poll conducted in April found that about 41 per cent of Canadians would support abolishing the Red Chamber, while another 45 per cent want it reformed. Only 14 per cent thought it should be left as it is.
At the time, only 16 per cent of poll respondents said their views of the Senate would inform their vote in the coming election.
Wall, meanwhile, has long been a supporter of Senate abolition. He told CBC Radio in June that it would be easier to just get rid of the Senate than to reform it.
In November 2013, Wall introduced a motion calling for the Senate to be abolished, where he said he believes most people in his province think the Senate no longer serves any useful purpose.