Article content continued

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair also has one of those, it so happens. His is to get medieval on the Senate’s carcass; blast it, pave it, make it a bowling alley, whatever: Just get rid of it. This is practically impossible, since the Supreme Court has judged abolition requires unanimous provincial consent, as well as agreement of the House and Senate. Even so it’s something. Fodder for thought, argument, comment and revision.

Now to the question: Where is Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s idea for Senate reform?

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Term limits, elections, the whole triple-E packet offered up by the Harper Conservatives dating back to their dewy-eyed Reform Party years, have been off his to-do list since the Supreme Court ruled in April of 2014. His response has been to stop appointing new Senators. There are 20 vacancies now. There will be dozens more in the next few years. The laws of Canada are not, in fact, legal, unless passed by a functioning Senate. Therefore we actually need some Senators, breathing, speaking, voting. Or we need a Plan B. The PMO has had a year to develop Plan B. Where is it?

Back to Mulroney who, at the time he stepped aside in 1993, was considered the most popularly disliked Canadian leader ever. “He bugs us still,” wrote Peter C. Newman years later. Controversy followed Mulroney everywhere. His cabinet was a revolving door of ministers moving in and out due to various infractions and peccadillos. There was Meech, the rise of the Bloc, Charlottetown. Later there was, of course, the Schreiber affair.