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He agreed that with government legislation, “at a certain point in time we have to defer.” But Smith said this week’s machinations are simply a reflection of Trudeau’s philosophy, “that people can voice their concerns so that the best possible laws can be implemented.… I think what we see is democracy in Canada being effective.”

At the end of March, the Senate passed 18 amendments to Bill C-49 — an unusually high number, but for an unusually large bill that saw industry groups lobbying senators an unusual amount. Last week, the Liberal-majority House agreed with three, tweaked a few more and rejected the rest.

In arguing for the Senate to insist on two of the amendments on Wednesday, Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk invoked “a very popular and famous publication you all know well” — The Wise Owls, a children’s book authored by the Senate’s communications staff, in which forest-dwellers discover that “what’s good for one animal is not necessarily good for all of them.” He got a round of applause.

The first of the two amendments would extend a rail shipment remedy — which would let long-haul shippers apply to switch between rail carriers at interchanges, under certain circumstances — to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The government rejected this because it said Maritime provinces have access to other remedies.

Amid considerable disagreement among independent senators over whether or not they should fight the House, those who agreed — such as Sen. Elaine McCoy, who had previously held that senators should defer to elected MPs except in dire circumstances — did so because of the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to prevent discrimination against regions.