Sen. Peter Harder, Trudeau’s outgoing point-man in the upper house, said the Conservatives’ loss in the last election has secured the Senate’s future as a more independent chamber free of partisan politics.
And while he’s pleased with the reforms made during his four-year term as government representative in the Senate, Harder said he’d like to see more people with political and parliamentary experience appointed to the place in the future.
Only a few of the recent Senate appointments have a background in politics — like Sen. Frances Lankin, a former Ontario NDP cabinet minister, and Sen. Pat Duncan, a past Liberal premier of Yukon. Most of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 51 appointees to date have been political neophytes.
Under Trudeau’s reforms, an independent appointments board compiles a list of eligible people to help the prime minister make his picks for the appointed chamber.
But the effort to rid the place of people with a partisan bent has left the Senate short of people who came into the job knowing how Parliament works.
Harder said Trudeau doesn’t have to return to a time when Senate appointments were given out as “gifts of the prime minister … rewards for political loyalty and the like.”
“I personally believe having political experience ought not exclude you from consideration for the upper chamber. We’d benefit from having individuals who’ve had experience in legislatures, or the House of Commons, or who are more active in political life,” he said. “But when you come to the Senate you turn that page [on party politics].”
Independent Ontario Sen. Frances Lankin, left, was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016. Before her time in the upper house, Lankin served as a cabinet minister in a former Ontario NDP government. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)
Harder, a former senior public servant, said there’s been a steep learning curve for some of the Trudeau appointees coming from non-political fields like medicine, the arts, business or the charitable sector.
Joining the Senate means a transition from private to public life — and the way Parliament works is completely unlike a private business or a non-profit.
For example, the standing committee on internal economy, budgets and administration — which essentially governs the chamber’s operations — is accountable not to shareholders but to the Canadian people, through senators.
The procedural quirks of the Senate can be hard to master. And while the Red Chamber has considerable power to amend or defeat legislation — a tempting proposition for new senators eager to enact change — Harder said senators ultimately have to defer to the government of the day.
“It would be helpful, in the mix of skill sets that are in the chamber, to have people who’ve gone through the practicalities of legislating — which, by definition, requires political compromises,” he said.
The chamber’s composition notwithstanding, Harder said the Senate has been more effective since the reforms because more senators are now willing to push the Liberal government to improve legislation.
Of the 88 government bills passed by the Senate in the last Parliament, the Senate amended 32. And 29 of those amended bills ultimately were accepted in whole or in part by the government.
Critics maintain some of those amendments were inconsequential or would have been proposed by senators during the drafting stage if they still sat in national party caucuses.
But the Senate under Trudeau has made considerably more amendments than it did under former prime minister Stephen Harper — when only one bill was amended by the Red Chamber in a four-year period.
‘I take some pleasure in that’
Outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer had promised to dismantle the Liberal government’s appointments process.
Scheer said he would revert to the decades-old tradition of appointing loyal party members to the Red Chamber.
When asked if he was happy with Scheer’s election loss on Oct. 21, Harder said no.
“I think that’s not the right adjective. I wasn’t relieved that Andrew Scheer didn’t win but I do think that our Senate experience, of being less partisan, more independent, will take root. I take some pleasure in that,” Harder said.
“The promise he made to go back to the political appointments and to the Senate of old is not good for the institution. It turned out not to be good for him politically, either.”
If the Liberal minority government can serve out an entire four-year term without losing a confidence vote, Trudeau will have appointed nearly three-quarters of the 105 seats in the chamber.
All of the Trudeau picks to this point have sat as Independents, outside of the traditional Liberal and Conservative caucuses.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
