Assorted content to end your week. – Jerry Dias sees the forced passage of an unamended Bill C-377 as a definitive answer in the negative to the question of whether the Senate will ever justify its own existence. And Nora Loreto emphasizes that the bill has no purpose other than
Continue readingTag: Senate
Accidental Deliberations: On rewriting
There’s plenty of justified outrage over Stephen Harper’s unelected Senate lapdogs choosing to tear up the Parliamentary rule book to force through an attack on unions in the form of Bill C-377. But I’m wondering whether the procedural move used to end debate might itself affect the validity of the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Conservative Senate Overthrows Speaker #cdnpoli #SenCA
Whoa, whoa… chaos reigns…. they might have just overthrown the speaker… — Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) June 26, 2015 Housakos rules the government’s attempt “violates a fundamental distinction in our rules and practices." — Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) June 26, 2015 Jesus you really can do anything you want with a majority
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mark Anderson reports on the Change Readiness Index’ findings that the growing concentration and inequality of wealth is making it more and more difficult for countries to deal with foreseeable disasters. But Jon Queally points out that a concerted effort to quit
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Guy Standing discusses the political and social importance of Canada’s growing precariat, as well as the broader definition of inequality needed to address its needs: The assets most unequally distributed are fourfold. First, socio-economic security is more unequally distributed than income. If
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Senate’s failure to provide any second thought on C-51 may serve as the ultimate signal that it has nothing useful to offer Canadians. For further reading…– PressProgress’ look at the Senate’s sad history is well worth a read. The CBC reports on the Auditor General’s findings
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saving Canada $90,000,000/year not worth Wall’s “effort”
“The Senate is never going to run properly and it’s never going to be worth the money we put into it. So it should be scrapped.” .@PremierBradWall Couldn't SK start the constitutional amendment process by proposing and adopting an amendment to abolish the Senate? — Mike Burton (@Mikefromregina) June 9,
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Heroes and Zeros – here’s how your Senators voted on Bill C-51
Yesterday we witnessed how the Senate passed Bill C-51. Once again, the government used its majority to ram the unpopular legislation through the Senate by 44 votes to 28, a much closer margin than many expected. The legislation – opposed by a whopping 56% of Canadians with just 33% in favour – will now
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Bill C-51 Just passed. Where do we go from here?
This just in from Ottawa: The Senate just passed Bill C-51 today by 44-28, despite massive opposition from hundreds of thousands of everyday Canadians and the country’s top privacy experts. Reckless Bill C-51 will now become Canadian law. read more
Continue readingBill C-51—a chance for the Senate to redeem itself
In the words of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, the Senate was created as a place of “sober second thought.” In the eyes of most Canadians today, it is more a place of corruption and sinecures for party hacks. But now it has been given a chance
Continue readingLeDaro: Mike Duffy Saga
Harper sure knows how to appoint Senators, Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau, and the notorious Mike Duffy. Harper campaigned against an appointed Senate, against privilege and corruption, in 2006, only to embrace it full on when he became Prime Minister. He appointed Mike Duffy, a so-called journalist who abused his position
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: iPolitics: Will Liberal Senators vote against Bill C-51 despite Trudeau’s stand?
According to iPolitics, Senate opposition leader James Cowan said he’ll break with the policy of his Liberal party and vote against the Harper government’s controversial anti-terrorism legislation, Bill C-51. “My sense would be that most Liberal senators will oppose the bill. We’ll propose amendments — not the same amendments they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On powers of appointment
Andrew Coyne has rightly pointed out the gall the Senate is showing in nixing Michael Chong’s watered-down Reform Act (even if there’s something to a few of the criticisms). But let’s not miss the most absurd suggestion of all as to who should be given increased power over a party’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Ladner discusses why our tax and fiscal policies should be designed to reduce inequality – rather than exacerbating it as the Cons are determined to do: Right now, the richest 20% of Canadian families hold almost 70% of the country’s wealth.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: What you know in the PMO
Obviously, the revelation that Mike Duffy saw his job in the Senate as including a role as a publicly-funded lobbyist for the climate denial movement raises a whole new set of questions about the Cons’ misuse of public resources. And if, say Enbridge is being at all honest in its
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: From beyond the grave
Andrew Coyne wants to pretend we shouldn’t worry what legislation gets passed by the Harper Cons on the theory that there’s absolutely nothing stopping a future elected government from reversing course. Which means it’s a good thing there’s no antiquated, undemocratic chamber of Parliament where regardless of the results of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – PressProgress documents how the Cons are driving Canada’s economy into the ditch. And Michael Babad reports that economists with a better grounding in reality than Stephen Harper are begging the provinces not to impose the austerity demanded by the Cons. – Kara
Continue readingZorg Report: Always Join a Club of Which You Weren’t a Member: Mike Duffy and the Senate
No-one seems to be all that preoccupied by the fact that a guy who reported on politicians for decades so desperately wanted to be an unelected one. I submit that that is a problem.
Key thing to remember about the Duffster, lest we all lose sight of it, is that the Duffster was a Hill veteran for years. He knew the ins ands outs, and the in-and-outs. He angled like an obsessed man for his appointment, even launching lawsuits against those he thought hurt his entitlement opportunities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Duffy). Now, you could say, well, Mike was just tired of being a journalist and wanted to get in on the real political action in a partisan way his “journalistic” profession had “technically” always denied him. I’d almost respect him for that—Mike Duffy waking up one day and saying, “Gee, I’m a Conservative, and I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to that cause.”
Zorg Report: Always Join a Club of Which You Weren’t a Member: Mike Duffy and the Senate
Abstract: Whatever happens in the Mike Duffy trial, let’s not forget one thing: Duffy watched the Senate for decades, and he wanted a part of it. Whatever might be said of his actions, or of the (comically alleged) hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil, see-no-evil members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s most intimate inner
Continue readingreeves report: Environmental Groups Pin Slim Hopes for Rouge Park Changes to Senate
Rouge Park in autumn. Canada’s Rouge National Urban Park Act began second reading in the Senate earlier this week after sailing through the House of Commons is just six months. Tobias C. Enverga Jr., a Stephen Harper appointed Senator for Ontario, is acting as the bill’s sponsor in the Senate.
Continue reading