Stephen Harper says he has a plan to force the provinces to accept Senate reform, or see the upper chamber starved of new senators — he's "just not going to make the appointments." Tom Mulcair says he's not complaining. But is it legal and will it work?
They cannot abolish it and they cannot change how Senators attain their position.
It's the provinces that'll be making that decision and with Ontario and Quebec being by far the two largest provinces with 48 of the 105 seats available between them, I don't see either wanting to open up that debate.
OTOH, there's nothing to stop him from appointing independents, not party hacks. This is Truedeau's position, and done right isn't a bad idea. You could also ask the appointees to commit to a term limit, tho once appointed they could of course decide to ignore the commitment.
Harper's plan is to stop appointing senators, le the senate die by attrition, so that it will force the provinces at some point to come to the table and have that debate. So far so good, but why didn't he follow this plan in the first place, instead of appointing the hacks he did, that blew up in his face? Also, seems to me at some point a province that has lost most of its senators could go to court to order the PM to appoint the number of senators they are entitled to.
OTOH, there's nothing to stop him from appointing independents, not party hacks. This is Truedeau's position, and done right isn't a bad idea. You could also ask the appointees to commit to a term limit, tho once appointed they could of course decide to ignore the commitment.
Very lucid take on the situation .
Of course Harper is worried about his past promises coming to haunt him. Sooooo...this....
It was a brilliant plan for him to pay his favourite party supporters with the goldenest of all handshakes, the senate.
Immoral , ruthless ,using the system to gain power, along with tax dollars for action plan ads and voila...in like Flynn...
So much attached to not enacting what historically he promised.
I never feared Preston Manning, and thought he would make a good Prime Minister , but seeing what surrounded the man realize it would be sort of the same as we got here. I'm sure Preston feels betrayed by Harper for going the way he did instead of the Reform Party Platform.
Harper's plan is to stop appointing senators, le the senate die by attrition, so that it will force the provinces at some point to come to the table and have that debate. So far so good
This is nothing but a thinly veiled, pre-election ploy used as an attempt to snow the voters and potentially sway the undecided.
Let's face it, we don't live in a democracy. We live in a country where we we're allowed to elect a dictatorship every few years that does whatever the hell it wants with no accountability. That goes for both the Conservatives and Liberals, federally and provincially. On top of that we have a joke of an electoral system where we vote for idiots more concerned with their standing in their party than with the constituents they're supposed to be representing.
If I wanted to put up with lying, cheating, stealing sacks of shit on a daily basis, I'd go back to my ex and her family.
As for the rest of your rant, I still say the electorate, including myself, is responsible for that situation. If we really gave a shit, we'd get much more involved, support candidates that have no money for media but are honest and make sure and any lying cheating stealing pols never get elected again. But pretty well all of us just vote for whoever we see representing our personal interests the best, and don't bother us with the details or whether it's good for the country as a whole.
I would say the federal NDP might be a bit less heinous in this regard, because they've never been in power. A few years in power tho, and they'll be walking on two legs and sitting at the table like the farmer did just as much as the other parties. Same with the Greens. Because we let them.
Seriously? People are falling for this shit? The Fed cannot unilaterally make changes to anything about the Senate other than who gets to pork-barrel on it.
They cannot abolish it and they cannot change how Senators attain their position.
It's the provinces that'll be making that decision and with Ontario and Quebec being by far the two largest provinces with 48 of the 105 seats available between them, I don't see either wanting to open up that debate.
He COULD appoint them from provincially ELECTED candidates for a start.
Or at least, appoint ME. Senator for New Caledonia... represent way more people than PEI
Harper's plan is to stop appointing senators, le the senate die by attrition, so that it will force the provinces at some point to come to the table and have that debate. So far so good
This is nothing but a thinly veiled, pre-election ploy used as an attempt to snow the voters and potentially sway the undecided.
Let's face it, we don't live in a democracy. We live in a country where we we're allowed to elect a dictatorship every few years that does whatever the hell it wants with no accountability. That goes for both the Conservatives and Liberals, federally and provincially. On top of that we have a joke of an electoral system where we vote for idiots more concerned with their standing in their party than with the constituents they're supposed to be representing.
If I wanted to put up with lying, cheating, stealing sacks of shit on a daily basis, I'd go back to my ex and her family.
I rather like the way our Government works. It's not a Dictatorship, although it does control the Agenda and usually gets what it wants, but IMO that's why it works so well.
At Election time our Political parties lay out their agendas, then we choose which one we prefer. One of them Wins, then starts implementing their policies. We get to see the results and/or whether that Party was honest, we choose again next election.
Our system allows Change to take place fairly rapidly. That's a good thing. It makes the system more flexible and better to respond to a changing world around it. The last thing I would want is a US style stagnation where even the most minute change takes decades and is usually half assed.
That's because the State's elect 2 Whore's each. In the past the State's sitting Gov. Nominated there Senator's as agents of the State that served at the will and term of the Gov who nominated them. Besides the Power of the Purse in the US rest with the US House.
There's no way, even though the Court says we only need 7/10 premiers to agree that 7 will think of the good of the whole country before that of their own province. It's hopeless... can't reform it, can't legally abolish it, and Harper's attrition policy isn't legal either.
Let's face it, we don't live in a democracy. We live in a country where we we're allowed to elect a dictatorship every few years that does whatever the hell it wants with no accountability. That goes for both the Conservatives and Liberals, federally and provincially. On top of that we have a joke of an electoral system where we vote for idiots more concerned with their standing in their party than with the constituents they're supposed to be representing.
If I wanted to put up with lying, cheating, stealing sacks of shit on a daily basis, I'd go back to my ex and her family.
Me old man fought in WWWII and died before the collapse of communism in Europe.
He always felt he never completed his job over there,for parts of Europe were not free to choose.
He taught me that as long as a person is free to vote for what ever they want then thats cool. You want communism, vote it in, you no longer want it, vote it out.
I see Harper as a control freak that loses his best to it.It being his control freak person, and not persona, but really him.
He is not really a dictator ,but his omnibus bills squashed into a budget with a majority government is pretty damn close.
I don't recall any Liberal government mirroring this guy.