OTTAWA

S tephen Harper's decision to appoint the biggest one-time contingent of senators to the Upper House is first and foremost another case of the Prime Minister doing what is probably the right thing for the wrong partisan reasons.

Notwithstanding the government spin, it is not a move forced upon Harper by the unexpected threat that an opposition coalition could use its highly hypothetical time in power to fill the Upper House with opponents of Senate reform.

That's just circumstantial sugar-coating to make the bitter pill of Harper's latest unkept promise easier for the Conservative rank-and-file to swallow.

A tentative list of Senate appointees was actually in the works long before the current parliamentary crisis materialized. Harper signalled his intention on the morning after the Oct. 14 election.

Would-be senators certainly took notice. They have been lobbying the government hard every since.

But by the same token, the move is not just the blatant attempt to stack the Senate on the eve of a possible defeat of the government that the opposition is portraying.

Sending 18 Conservatives to partisan heaven will not shift the balance of power in favour of the government in the Upper House. And 12 more vacancies will be opening up in 2009, giving any incoming Liberal government ample opportunity to bolster an already healthy Senate majority.

In some ways, the Conservative appointments are actually overdue. In the end, the Senate as an institution will be better off for them.

Like it or not, the Upper House is an essential part of the legislative apparatus. And it is best able to acquit itself of its constitutionally mandated duty when there is adequate representation on both sides of its chamber.

That is not the case now.

For 15 years and with only one or two exceptions, Senate appointees have been Liberals. The party holds a solid majority of 58 seats in the 105-member house.

Their long exile from power, combined with the Prime Minister's refusal to fill most vacancies over his first mandate, have reduced Conservative ranks to only 20 senators, less than one for every two of the opposition.

As a result, government resources are stretched beyond the limit. For lack of Conservative members to sit on committees, the Senate is operating on half of its ancient cylinders.

Harper drove the Upper House to this dysfunction by holding out on appointments long after it became obvious that his plans for an elected senate were dead in the water.

On that score, the fact that there is not enough opposition support for the Conservative reform in the minority Parliament is a bit of a red herring.

Should Harper or one of his successors go ahead with a unilateral plan to reform the Senate, a number of provinces will head to the courts.

In the best-case scenario, a settlement of the issue could be years of constitutional litigation away, whether the Prime Minister asserts control of both houses of Parliament or not.

But meanwhile, Parliament needs to continue to function.

In the circumstances, the potential addition of extra Liberal senators that Stéphane Dion unwisely alluded to earlier this month would have amounted to compounding a wrong with another wrong.

Painting the Senate a deeper shade of red would have made it so one-sided as to trump the legislative dynamics for years to come.

Frankly, the last thing the Liberals need at this juncture is a caucus where senators outnumber MPs.





Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.