Posted on 06/17/2005 10:53:56 PM PDT by goldstategop
When the framers of Canada's constitution, which was in fact an act of the British Parliament, met back in the 1860s to decide how the country would be governed, they were markedly conscious that it must be both North American and British.
It must therefore have a bicameral legislature – i.e., an "upper" and "lower" House – as did both Britain and the United States. They copied the British in calling the lower one "the House of Commons" and the Americans in calling the upper one "the Senate."
However, the Canadian Senate bears little resemblance to the American one. The American Senate is elected, equally represents each state and has formidable authority over legislation, federal appointments, treaties and other government functions, all of which it fully exercises. The Canadian Senate also has formidable powers, but has scarcely ever exercised them.
There is good reason for this. Canadian senators are appointed by the government, not elected. They therefore have neither a popular mandate to govern nor an electorate to fear. And since they serve to age 75, the Senate has become a retirement home. The media rarely cover its proceedings, because they just don't matter.
Over many years, demands for "Senate reform" have constantly arisen, resulting in earnest debate and, so far, nothing more. The most daring was the "Triple-E Senate" movement, calling for a Senate on the American model – Elected, Effective and Equally representing the provinces – which began after the Trudeau government in the early 1980s pirated Alberta's oil revenues.
It gained strong support in the West; the rest of Canada regarded it as insane. How could a government function, people asked, if it didn't have control of the legislature? The fact that American governments have been adequately functioning this way since the 18th century was dismissed as irrelevant.
In reprisal, Alberta did the unprecedented. During a provincial election, its Conservative government also conducted a "Senate election," then demanded that the federal government, which at the time was also Conservative, appoint the winner. The federal government did so – and Canada at last had one elected senator.
But there has never been another. Although Alberta has continued to conduct Senate "elections," successive Liberal governments have flatly refused to appoint the winners. Known locally as "senators-elect," they serve an unpaid six-year term. (Here I must declare an "interest," since one current senator-elect is my son, Link.)
For the government knows, of course, what radical change an elected Senate would work. A Canadian prime minister with a Commons majority is the most powerful head-of-state in the Western world. Since he can veto his party's nominations for candidate, he can control the Commons; he appoints the senators; and he appoints all federal judges and ambassadors, without the encumbrance of legislative review. Parliamentary debates become little more than mere formalities, leading to votes whose outcome is already known.
Paul Martin's current minority government therefore gives the country a refreshing breath of democracy, though many Canadians do not seem to feel refreshed. Instead, they decry this "instability" and apparently yearn for their customary autocracy. An elected Senate, which would soon begin exercising the real powers of Canada's upper House, would assure even greater "instability," since without triggering an election it could force the government to bend and amend.
It would also demand – and soon get – the right to ratify appointments to the bench, a prospect deplored by the current chief justice as an abominable Americanism. The Canadian Supreme Court has made itself much more "supreme" than its U.S. counterpart and therefore, as the nation's ultimate authority on law, must preserve an illusion of sanctity. Its nine judges must not be seen as nine lawyers chosen by tawdry political process, appearing like job applicants before a Senate committee of mere politicians. Rather, they must be nine sages, Plato's "Guardians," divinely guided, mystically appointed to rule us, instruct us and, above all, mold us into the kind of country they know we should be.
Alberta is characteristically unenraptured by this vision, and last week three of its four current senators-elect launched a campaign to persuade other provinces to hold Senate elections. They found some sympathy in the Atlantic region, none whatever in Ontario and Quebec, and will tackle the West next week. They believe that if two other provinces began electing senators, the federal government could be forced to actually name the electees, who would commit themselves to serve a fixed term.
This won't happen fast, they know, but the idea could take hold. Like Iraq, even Canada might one day become a democracy.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Moreover, Alberta and British Columbia, the most economically vibrant in the next century, are dramatically underrepresented the the appointed Senate. This will ultimately be the undoing of Canada.
I wonder if their Senators are invertebrates like ours our.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Agreed. However, the problem with Canada, is that they are appointed by the PM.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Doubtful. They had their chance in '76.
And another in '12.
Just look at how they scream and cry about the possibility they might be allowed to pay for decent health care.
While he has more dictatorial authority than most in the western world, I hardly think that he is the most powerful man.
Except that what he has power over is Canada. Being the most powerful man in Canada is a bit like being the tallest building in Des Moines.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.