Article content continued

[np_storybar title=”Read & Debate” link=””] Find

Full Comment on Facebook

[/np_storybar]

And what else would you expect? Examine the membership of the advisory committee and you notice it’s heavy with people paid from the public purse, or dependent on government for grace and favour. Who else would they put forward but Canadians who reflect their own background: public servants, academics, friendly faces, administrators, reliable interest groups and members of other Liberal-friendly operations. They don’t reflect Canada so much as they reflect the Liberals’ view of Canada: people like them; people you see in the salons of Ottawa, people who will be sympathetic to Liberal aspirations and the Liberal way of doing things. Even if, under Trudeau’s directive, they have to promise not to call themselves Liberals.

James Cowan, the leader of Senate Liberals, understands the dynamics at work. Senate Liberals used to be Liberal senators, until Trudeau decreed that there are no more Liberal senators, and thus they must identify themselves as Senate Liberals. In much the same manner, Cowan says, there’s nothing to stop him wooing the new “Independent” senators into working with his Liberal members. “I will certainly be inviting them to come and have a look at the way we do business and see if it appeals to them,” he told the Globe and Mail.

To be fair to the Liberals, it would be difficult for any government to find 105 Canadians who have the experience, expertise and understanding of Ottawa’s ways demanded for Senate membership, yet have developed no views on how the country should be run, or which side of the political divide attracts their sympathy. But no other prime minister before Trudeau claimed the ability to do it. His “independents” may not hold a party membership, but that’s not the only measure of independence. Would it have been too much to include just one new senator who doesn’t see government as the answer to every problem? An entrepreneur? Someone who’s been required to meet a payroll or risked their own money on an idea?

Evidently so.

National Post

KellyMcParland<