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Again, that made perfect sense. Indeed, it still makes perfect sense — which is why a big part of me is wondering if all the buzz about the Prime Minister suddenly supporting abolition is a miscommunication or an outright false rumour run amok during the height of the summer news slump.

But if it’s not, and this is a real story — it’s 12:30 p.m. Eastern now, so we’ll know a few hours — you have to wonder what’s changed.

It could be a purely strategic move. After all, the rumours suggest the Prime Minister would couch his proposal in terms of a plan to consult with the provinces about how to move forward. That certainly would buy some time and kick this can down the road until after the election, and give the Tories something to point to during the campaign whenever this came up. A commitment to consult is boring, but it’s something.

The more interesting option, of course, is that the Tories have decided for whatever reason — internal polling, perhaps — that the Senate is a bigger problem than they expected or anticipated. In a tight race, losing a few seats over naughty behaviour in the Upper Chamber could have huge ramifications. This may be a belated attempt to “feel the pain” of the voters in a way that blunts the sharpest criticisms the Tories know is coming.

It’s all speculation, of course. We don’t even know for sure, at time of writing, if anything is going to happen. And yet. The Tories have spent years telling people like me, and acting as if they truly believed, that Senate scandals were embarrassing, annoying, frustrating … but ultimately insignificant. And now we’re suddenly confronted with the prospect that, rather than a trivial irritation, the Senate scandals may be about to become a centrepiece of the Conservative re-election campaign, one that the polls are showing will be tight and hard-fought right across the country.

What to do with the Senate is an important issue. It deserves a proper debate and the attention of all Canadians. It deserves to be taken more seriously than some pre-election irritant to be punted down the road. But if that punting is about to happen, it sure is interesting to wonder why … and what changed.

National Post

mgurney@nationalpost.com

Twitter.com/mattgurney

Matt Gurney is deputy editor of the National Post Comment section and a member of the paper’s editorial board. He hosts National Post Radio every weekday morning from 6 to 9 ET on SiriusXM’s Canada Talks, channel 167.