I Can Be A Senator

Finally I qualify for the Senate. And the news is that Harper is planning to appoint 18 new senators.

Eligibility to Be a Canadian Senator
To be appointed to the Canadian Senate, a person must be
at least 30 years old
be a resident of the province or territory they represent own property worth at least $4000 in the province and have a personal net worth of at least $4000.

My partner and I bought a house this summer, which has been a harrowing yet exciting experience. One of the reasons I wasn't blogging regularly, and the reason this blog will be offline for the next week over Xmas. I am finally moving into my house.

We bought the house when the market went down. Our landlord decided, too late, to sell his house and it was way out of our price range. We decided that it was time to buy a house, after all a house has value, and our mortgage was just slightly more than what we pay in rent, and rent always increases.

And I discovered we were able to scrap together the 5% downpayment to get CHMC backed mortgage.

The house we bought is not on the southside, which is where I was born and preferred to live but the Old Strathcona area is way overpriced.

So we got a house in the Centre of the city by Commonwealth Stadium. So I move from one NDP riding; Edmonton Strathcona to another NDP riding; Edmonton Highlands.

We were supposed to take possession in the middle of October but due to the owners not leaving in time we got it at the begining of November. And for the past month and a half we have been renovating it.

And that is a tale in itself. But for another day.

Suffice it to say that I am over 30, and now qualify as a property owner to be a Senator. It's the Alberta dream, well the dream for some Albertans like my old nemisis Link Byfield.

If Harper appoints me to the Senate I promise to continue to fight for its abolition.

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Why The Senate Is Undemocratic

To be a senator, you must be a Canadian citizen, at least 30 years of age, own $4,000 of equity in land in your province, have a personal net worth of $4,000, and live in the province that you plan to represent.

SEE:

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

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Cost Of Abolishing The Senate

Another Liberal blogger suffers from wishful thinking;A splash of cold water for the Senate abolition gang and sounding a lot like their partisan pals over at the Blogging Tories.

The Liberal nay sayers are buoyed by the 'experts' opinions; NDP-Tory plan won't get through Senate: experts

Except they forget that Quebec eliminated it's Senate years ago. And we can do the same. Simply payout the old farts.

The Senate consists of 105 members, appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister. Seats are assigned on a regional basis, with each region receiving 24 seats. Senators must be at least 30 years old, and they can serve until they reach the age of 75. They earn more than $100,000 a year, not including pensions and benefits.

Let's see pull out my handy dandy calculator and that comes out to a paltry;
$10,500,000 not including pensions and benefits. Make em a one time offer and they will dissolve the Red Chamber laughing all the way to the bank.

And I am sure the Conservative Senators would of course not accept the payout on the principle of saving taxpayers money. Just like the Reform Party MP's didn't accept their government pensions.



SEE:

The Senators Fan Club

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

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The Senators Fan Club

No not the hockey team. The old farts club in parliament. That vestigial remnant of the aristocracy, the days of Lords and Ladies, the Senate.

The Senate was intended to mirror the British House of Lords, in that it was meant to represent the social and economic élite.

It seems that the Liberal bloggers over at Progressive Bloggers are all aghast at the idea of abolishing their favorite retirement village; the Senate. All sorts of slagging of Jack Layton and the NDP is going on over this issue. As I posted about here. Not a peep out of them when Progressive Conservative Senator Hughie Segal announced his plan to call for a referendum on Abolishing the Senate weeks ago.

Mainly it is because they put their hopes in the Red Chamber, coincidently the colour of their party, where they hold the majority to be able to do what their Party in Opposition cannot do; oppose the Harper Government. They have no more vision than the realpolitik of the moment.

Read these pathetic partisan posts and you will see what I mean.

Why Canada Should Not Abolish the Senate
It is currently the closest thing we have to an actual opposition to the government.

Senate Reform
The end goal of yesterday’s announcement isn’t to abolish the senate, it’s to abolish the Liberal opposition. It’s another example of the fact that Layton is willing to work more closely with Stephen Harper than any other leader, so long as it’s good for his party

Jack?s Senate Follies

If there is going to be a referendum in the next election I would like to see a vote on reforming the voting system to proportional representation model. Jack has joined Harper’s in his plan to distract Canadians from our disastrous climate change, child care, poverty, and First Nations policies so we can yammer on about something that matters very little

Layton's Christmas present for Harpie came early

"Harper would back plan for referendum on abolishing Senate." Sure he'll take Jack up on his offer. He's not an idiot, after all. He'll absolutely take up Jack on his offer to get the Senate front and center on the nation's agenda. He wants an Americanized elected-equal Senate, as he does with most things. So if these two clowns have their way, we'll be spending eons of time in the next few years debating Senate reform, when the country is not crying out for it and has plenty of other priorities

Silly DipCons.

There is no doubt that the New Democrats and the Conservatives are in league together. There have been moments in Canadian political history where they?ve supported each other?s democracy to perverse the Canadian democratic tradition that has been celebrated for over a century. Conservative and NDP sources have told CTV that the Harper government will back a NDP motion slated to call for a national referendum to abolish the unelected Senate that?ll be introduced to the House of Commons next Tuesday.

DANGER DANGER DANGER
I was just watching Thomas Mulcair on CBC News. The NDP is now proposing a referendum on abolition of the Senate. To begin with, I doubt you would get a majority in every province so it's a non-starter.

Once again showing that Liberals are often no more 'progressive' than their partisan playmates over at the Blogging Tories. As if we needed any reminder.

Cudos go to those progressive bloggers who actually have defended this long standing policy of the CCF/NDP and the Left In Canada. Of course two of these are Dippers, but they are not particularly partisan.

Longheld NDP policy having its day
Today some big news broke on the electoral reform front. On the weekend in Winnipeg, NDP Leader Jack Layton called for a nation wide referendum on the abolition of the senate. That announcement should not have surprised anyone simply because the NDP and it's forerunner, the CCF, have been calling for the abolition of the Senate since 1932. The NDP also announced that they would be putting a motion before the House of Commons upon it's return to have this referendum. The Senate Abolition policy is hardly new policy for the NDP, but what added to the news was the announcement today Stephen Harper and his party would back the NDP's motion in the House.

NDP scores victory: Senate abolition takes a leap forward

Liberal MPs should take note, this is what effective opposition looks like.Despite what Stephane Dion might tell Liberal MPs, opposition parties are supposed get their ideas on the agenda, not roll over and have the government get its way like Liberals have of late

Changes To The Senate On The Way?
Now on the motion itself: I’m personally in favour of creating a “Citizen Assembly On Senate Reform” and let’s them decide what kind of action should be taken, approved by a referendum. But, hey, I don’t think that the current Senate is acceptable in today’s world, and abolition sounds like an acceptable alternative to me.

Though to be fair even some Liberals get it.

Stephen Harper is not Always Wrong
I guess this post should be titled why the senate should be abolished. Let's review our options on the Canadian Senate:The Status Quo:An unelected senate/ or quasi-elected (Harper's appointment of the senator from Alberta) senate with almost as much power (on paper) as the House of Commons.…

And then some folks at PB actually are defending the longstanding dream of the right wing populists in the Reform party of an Triple E Senate as an alternative to abolition. Anything but abolition.

Senate Abolition VS. Senate Reform
With a referendum being discussed, and potentially in the offing, the topic of senate reform has suddenly moved from the back burner to the front burner for many Canadians. This may provide an opportunity to begin the process of airing public concerns and potentially moving from an unelected, unequal and ineffective chamber toward the type of elected, equal and effective one that would be the most beneficial for everyone involved.

When push comes to shove the Liberals will accept Senate Reform to save their Red Chamber. That is perhaps what irks them most about Jacks move. They will be forced to accept the Conservatives Senate Reform as the lesser of two evils.

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An Idea Whose Time Has Come

I have said it before, and I have campaigned for it and will do so again. Good on Jack. And he is teaming up with a Red Tory; Hughie Segal to do it.

Layton calling for referendum on abolishing Senate

NDP Leader Jack Layton is calling for a referendum on the abolition of the Senate, an institution he describes as "outdated and obsolete."

"It's a 19th-century institution that has no place in a modern democracy in the 21st century," Layton told party organizers Sunday in Winnipeg.

"It's undemocratic because (senators) are appointed by prime ministers who then are turfed out of office. But these senators end up leaving a long shadow of their continued presence in the legislative context."

Layton has long called for the upper chamber to be done away with. The idea for a nationwide vote on the issue was floated two weeks ago by Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, who favours maintaining the upper house. He said a referendum could lead to important reforms if a majority of Canadians voted to keep the upper chamber.

Layton, albeit with different motives, is trying to put Segal's idea on the floor of the Commons. He said the NDP will introduce a motion calling for a referendum in the coming weeks, and is hoping Prime Minister Stephen Harper will allow Tory members to vote freely on the issue.

The referendum would not be costly, Layton said, because it could be held in conjunction with the next federal election.

"Why don't we start out by finding out how Canadians feel about it," Layton said.

Four provincial governments, including British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have supported the idea of abolishing the Senate and the prime minister has warned that the upper chamber might be abolished if it can't be reformed.

Abolish the Senate, the anachronistic vestigial remains of British Parliamentary representative government, which was not democratic. It is a throw back to the days before universal suffrage when one had to own property to be elected to government.

In order to have authentic parliamentary and democratic reform in Canada the Senate needs to be abolished and replaced with proportional representation in the House with an increase in MP's.

And while we are at it lets implement some of those radical left wing populist notions from the turn of last century; Recall and Referendum's. Yes I said left wing because they were instituted in Alberta under the joint United Farmers/Labour government in 1921.

After all there is no democracy like direct democracy.

But there are those who are whining about this being unconstitutional. Must be Liberals. Not liberals.

The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.

1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien

For a different, but no less thoughtful,perspective see Jack Layton and the Drunken Chamber

SEE

Abolish The Senate Redux

Abolish The Senate 2

Senator Brown

Bully Boy Harper

Deforming The Senate

Abolish the Senate 1

Democracy Is Messy

Conservative Blogger Endorses NDP

Nosferatu Fortier

Whose Canada?

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Senator Brown

The appointment of 'elected' Senator Bert Brown by his old pal our PM, Stephen Harper, is a pale horse compared to the old Reform call for a Triple E senate Brown and Harper used to call for. It is based upon the passing of the Conservatives Senate Reform Bill C-43. Of course Harper as PM can appoint Browne without Bill C-43 but he qualified his appointment as being tied to the bill now in the house.

The Senate (14:50)

Mr. Kevin Sorenson (Crowfoot, CPC)

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC)

Though Ottawa has no obligation by law to appoint the senators from Alberta's "elected" list, Harper was happy to do so to better publicise his campaign for an elected Senate.

Under Harper's Bill C-43, all senators will be appointed based on "popular consultations" with the provinces before they are inducted into the Red Chamber.

"Alberta did some time ago hold a popular consultation for the filling of a Senate vacancy. When that seat comes due, I will recommend to the Governor General the appointment of Mr. Bert Brown," said Harper.

While the Conservatives are claiming that Bert got over 400,000 votes ( they even lie about that he only got just over 300,000) . And while he ran three times, he actually was in a dead heat with Betty Unger. So Harper had a choice between his old pal or Unger.

The real story is how many folks voted against the phony senate elections held in 2004. In fact the vast number of Albertans abstained from voting or spoiled their ballots,for the right wingers running for Alberta Senator.

Nearly one in five ballots spoiled in Alberta Senate elections

More than 170,000 Albertans, or nearly 19.3 per cent of the total number of those who went to the polls on Nov. 22, rejected or spoiled their ballots.

Alberta's chief election officer Brian Fjeldheim said 85,937 people declined to take a senate ballot, and another 84,643 either filled them out improperly or intentionally marked them so they couldn't be counted.

Voter turnout for the overall election was at a historic low of about 46 per cent, while the senate election turnout was around 35 per cent.

For example in one riding in Northern Alberta the total votes spoiled, rejected, or declined came to 8147, while those who cast votes came to 19,154 split between ten candidates. Clearly the majority was with those who rejected this phony election. No one candidate got anywhere near the number of the total protest non vote.

This was in fact the third time we had Senate elections in Alberta. And Bert is the second such senator appointed to the Senate. The last one was Stan Waters another of the Reform party hacks, who was appointed by Brian Mulroney.

It was almost a decade between elections for Senators in Alberta. The first time when Waters and Brown got elected it was all for show, that the Klein regime was onside with Mannings Reformers. It was a political protest to push the Triple E Senate idea.

Then eight years later, with little reason to call one, a Senate election was tacked onto the provincial municipal elections, the Klein regime also tacked on elections for regional Health Boards. That Senate election had more independents then the previous or the later election.

Ironically those Health Board elections were overturned within a year, the elected board members fired and replaced with Klein government appointees. So much for democratic reform.

The election in 2004 for Senators saw right wingers and only right wingers run. In fact the provincial P.C.'s were reluctant to back anyone, or run anyone, until forced to by their pals on the right.

It is all a clever mirage of pseudo democracy by a province that suffers from a democratic deficit as a one party state. Irony abounds. Here we have the Alberta Reformers wanting democracy in Ottawa when it is lacking at home.

Harpers Bill C-43 continues this made in Alberta pseudo democratic reformism. It is all about appearances not real Senate reform. First Harper appoints an unelected Montrealer to be in Cabinet as Public Works Minister by appointing him to the Senate. Thus his minister can avoid public questioning in the house.

Next he calls for term limits for Senators, then he calls for a bill that would encourage the PM to appoint elected senators, when only one province has made this an issue and ever held an election. The rest of Canada could care less. And for good reason.

The senate is an anachronism that actually disenfranchises Canadians regardless of whether Senators are elected or not. And nothing in Harpers phony senate reform bill will change this basic fact.

According to the Constitution, anyone appointed to the Senate must be over the age of 30, a resident of the province they represent and own property worth $4,000, above their debts.

Renters and young people need not apply for the job.



See:

Deforming The Senate

Senate Reform

Abolish the Senate 1

Democracy Is Messy

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Abolish the Senate
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Conservatives
electoral reform

Deforming The Senate

Reforming the Senate is a waste of time.

But Harper is pushing Senate reform , actually its more like deform, his proposal is that provinces hold Senate elections during Federal elections and then the PM would appoint the 'elected senators' thus avoiding a constitutional change, read constitutional amendment, is another Alberta innovation.

Quebec will never agree, Que. says no to Harper's senate plan even though Alberta has already done this, which leaves eight other provinces open to electoral reform through the back door. And it is being rejected not only by Quebec but Canada's biggest province, Ont. minister dismisses Harper's Senate-reform plan

And it is being rejected even by the other Western Canadians; If the Senate mattered

The Triple E Senate originated in Alberta, and was a key platform demand of the Reform Party it is Harpers sop to his Alberta base the only province that has held Senate elections. And even those elections have lacked popular support, garnering as many spoiled ballots and abstentions as votes.

And who wants Link Byfield in the Senate, he and his whole family are representatives not of Alberta but the loony right.

That Harper continues to attempt Senate Reform by edict, misses the whole point of the Reform Movement in the West. It was about reforming the parliamentary system, but under Preston Manning it only went part way with the concept of the Triple E Senate.

Like vestigial useless wisdom teeth the Senate is the home of non-representative democracy, the last vestige of aristocracy, modeled as it is on the House of Lords. It represents the early parliament of landowners. You need to own property and be over the age of thirty to sit in the Senate, or to even run for the Senate.

We don't need to reform the Senate we need to eliminate the Senate and replace it with Proportional Representation, and a greater say in Ottawa. Senate Reform itself was realpolitik of the Manning reformers, they didn't think they could radically change Canadian parliamentary politics perse so they used Senate Reform as their hobbyhorse.

The reality has changed since the eighties and nineties, and PR is now on the agenda for the NDP and Greens and even members of the Liberals, Conservatives and BQ.

So instead of Senate Reform let's abolish the Senate and talk about real parliamentary reform including PR, recognition of municipalities as political bodies that pre-date provinces thus entitled to federal recognition as provinces are, recognition of Aboriginal Self Government, and a new federalism based upon constituent assemblies.

Now that would be radical reform.

The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.

1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien

See

Senate Reform

Abolish the Senate 1

Democracy Is Messy

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Triple E Senate, Reform Party, Harper, Conservatives, Parliament, parliamentary reform, senate reform, senators, politics, Canada, abolish the senate, Louis-Joseph Papineau

Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Alberta
Abolish the Senate
Harper
Conservatives
electoral reform