Article content continued

With close to a third of its present number under RCMP investigation over their expense claims, the Senate has never been in lower repute.

Yes, we know that senators have this power on paper, in the same way as the Governor General in theory has the power to disallow or reserve legislation. But the public’s willingness to tolerate these sorts of extraordinary powers in unelected hands resides entirely in the expectation that they will not be used. Even if there were some sort of emergency or crisis that might conceivably justify their use, this is clearly not one of them.

There is no suggestion that the Act, a private member’s bill introduced by Conservative MP Michael Chong, was drafted in haste, or that the people’s elected representatives did not know what they were passing. In fact the bill was many years in the preparation, was debated at length in the Commons, and was substantially amended in the process.

Neither is there any ambiguity in the Commons’ intent: It was passed by a vote of 260-17, with support from every major party. Moreover, the substance of the bill, a series of measures aimed at altering the balance of power between party leaders and the MPs in their caucus, is entirely concerned with the internal affairs of the Commons, traditionally and rightly considered none of the Senate’s business.

We happen to think the Reform Act is good law — watered down though it is, it is a potential first step towards making leaders more accountable to their MPs, and MPs less beholden to their leaders, without which no further reform is possible.

The critics’ objections, notably the supposed scandal that a small number of MPs could trigger a leadership review, are obtuse: MPs have that power now. But what follows under current practice is a long and uncertain process, with no rules or criteria, that invariably proves debilitating to the party in question. By formalizing the rules, the Reform Act would make the process of holding leaders to account less damaging, and therefore more credible.