Senators-elect meet with Ralph Klein

[ivbinconned]

Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy

WEEKLY COMMENTARY
"Just Between Us"

December 13, 2004

Senators-elect meet with Ralph Klein

People have been asking me since Alberta's election on November 22, "Well, what about this Senate business? Are you going to push for appointment, or was it all just a $3-million waste of time?"

Good question, but it won't be answered by me. It will be answered by Ralph Klein.

If the premier decides to make democratizing Parliament a high priority, much good may come of this election.

If Albertans can persuade even two or three other provinces to start electing replacement candidates for the Senate, as we do in Alberta when incumbents retire, we could see reform almost immediately.

Most Canadians support this change, and the power of democracy should not be underestimated, even in Canada.

Our pitch to the other provinces will be that if they take the initiative and start holding elections, they will be able to claim permanent ownership of the election process. Thereafter, senators will be answerable to provincial political parties, not national ones.

That would give the premiers considerable influence over the future Senate -- more, in fact, than the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the pitch to Martin will be that if he appoints only elected replacements, he'll get all the credit for Senate reform without losing personal control of Parliament's upper house during his own term of office.

The transition from appointed to elected senators would take a decade to complete, long after Martin is gone.

During that transition, Canadians can decide if elected senators are better than the old patronage appointees. If they aren't, the policy can be reversed.

The idea of electing federal members to the upper chamber of Parliament seems radical in Canada, but is a matter of course everywhere else. Even hidebound Britain is moving towards democratizing the House of Lords.

Here in Canada we should at least try to keep up with the Ukraine on democratic reform. The problem there is that one man has far too much power. The same problem exists here.

In Canada, the prime minister has the final say over selection of all senators, cabinet ministers, government caucus MPs, superior court judges, the governor-general, and heads of national boards, agencies, corporations and commissions.

We should not be the only modern country with no democratic input into the selection of appellate court judges, with power over issues like homosexual marriage. In other federal systems, judicial nominees are screened by an independent Senate with the power of veto.

Martin can easily brush off Albertans. Liberals always do. But if Albertans are joined by, say, British Columbians, Manitobans, Nova Scotians and Newfoundlanders, what then?

How many Canadians can Martin--or any other prime minister--afford to offend?

So the challenge in the New Year will be to spread Senate reform to other provinces.

To this end, our little caucus of four Senate-electees met with Premier Klein last week. Somewhat to my surprise and much to my delight, the premier exhibited real interest in the cause, and the more he listened, the more enthused he became.

He said it makes little long-term difference whether Martin follows through on his threat to fill Alberta's three vacant Senate seats with patronage appointees right away. The premier said he would "vigorously pursue" the issue anyway.

I hope he does, because he's in a position to do this country a lot of good.

- Link Byfield

[Braveheart]

I hope our government doesn't decide to pay these folks an honorarium and send them to sit in Ottawa waiting to be appointed to the Senate. Lord knows we have enough people in Ottawa sitting costing us money without sending these four to add to the payroll !!!

[Horse]

I hope that they got a good lunch at our expence at least.

[cowman]

If Klein went through the whole excercise just to play "Ottawa basher" then it indeed was a waste of time.
But consider this: The people of Alberta elected four people to represent them in Ottawa. If they aren't "appointed" then in fact do we have a fair and just system? Wasn't the American revolution fought on the very concept of "taxation without representation"?
Wouldn't it be entirely concievable that our premier could say to Ottawa: You won't recognize our elected Senators...we won't recognize your right to tax us? Is this not a valid argument? Isn't this the very reason America broke away from England to become a seperate nation?

[wilagro]

I would hope that our PM would appoint senators of HIS choosing. Under the present constitution, there are NO elected or pseudo-elected senators no matter what Ralph Klein says or what stupid legislation is in effect in Alberta.

As far as paying these "senators-in-waiting" is concerned...NEVER.

If Ralph wants to pay them, let it come out of his own pocket. We are paying for enough deadwood already.

Waste of money...yes the whole senatorial election was indeed a waste. Waste of money...not to worry as long as this government has it's grubhooks on the revenue stream. Just sell a few more billion dollars of our oil or natural gas resources.

[cakadu]

Yes, in Alberta alone it cost over $3 million for the senate election, or around $750,000 per wannabe senator. The number of spoiled or unmarked ballots was phenomenal, so was this a good use of taxpayers money? I think NOT.

Can anybody tell me what the senators actually do? Ever sit in on a session in the Senate? Pretty rousing stuff!!! Do we need more people on the gravy train?

One thing I've noticed over the years is that someone on the outside always points out the problems and then once on the inside, there are no more problems. Go figure.

[cakadu]

The only senator that I hear making any noise is Tommy Banks. He is on a mission to get us to stop driving SUV's!

[cakadu]

Okay, so that makes one out of how many senators? How long will he be making noise for - throughout the "One Tonne Challenge?"

Does anyone know if his vehicle (or limo) is a hybrid?

[cakadu]

Have no clue what the man drives. I was shocked to hear that any senator was being vocal about anything to tell you the truth !
I think that Senate reform is a necessary thing in Canada, but too many of the appointees are cronies of the government in power no matter which government it is at the time, so no-one has the 'guts' to take the bull by the horns and initiate these reforms. I wonder what the average age of senators is ?

[cakadu]

Well, my guess would be a couple of things: (a) that they spent enough money on the study that he (Banks)was responsible for (b) the government has to make some noise about wanting people to cut down on GHG emissions because the Kyoto accord does come into effect in 2008 and that isn't so very far away.

I would hazard a guess that the average age would put them in the mid-sixties?

(Boy emrald - both yourself and cowman are up before the chickens.)

[ivbinconned]

November 29, 2004

The Senate can be reformed easily and effectively
if Alberta makes it an issue

Well, Alberta's Senate election is over. Now the real fight begins--again.

I came fourth among the four winners with 236,000 votes. I was right behind Onoway farmer and former MP Cliff Breitkreuz, and comfortably ahead of six other candidates.

First place went to Edmonton businesswoman Betty Unger with 308,000 votes, followed closely by Calgary-area farmer, Mr. Triple E himself, Bert Brown.

The question has been asked, what did the election achieve?

I think it has been answered by over two million marks on Alberta ballots. The mere fact that most voters chose to cast Senate ballots proves that they believe Parliament's upper house should be elected, not appointed by Paul Martin.

No reform could be more reasonable, nor do as much to change the way the federal government operates.

The main problem with Canada's system of government is that the prime minister has amassed far too much personal power. We have become an elected dictatorship.

All those who could and should be able to challenge his decisions--premiers, senators, judges, Liberal cabinet ministers and backbenchers--owe their positions or their revenues to his goodwill.

There are now so many appointed Liberals in the Senate even Liberal senators publicly complain that it no longer functions.

The prime minister unilaterally decides fiscal policy, defence policy, social policy, foreign policy, and justice policy. His word is law. The thousand minions who staff his two offices (the PMO and PCO) face none of those power-balances which normally prevent constitutional democracies from descending into corrupt, ugly little tyrannies.

That's why the Chretien PMO could secretly run the sponsorship program which saw $100 million stolen from the federal treasury. It's why we can't ditch Liberal boondoggles like the gun registry, which most Canadians now oppose.

If the Senate were independently elected, much of this problem would vanish overnight.

We don't even need the old Reform Party idea of provincial equality. We can do it with the regional equality which is in the Senate now. All we'd have to do is reduce the Atlantic from 30 senators to 24 (a fluke of history), so it has the same number as Quebec, Ontario and the West have always had.

If this regionally equal Senate were proportionately elected, and even if Canadians voted the same for the Senate as they did for the House of Commons, the Liberals would have lost control of the Senate in all of the last three elections.

I did the math. After this year's election, out of 99 senators (96 for the four regions and one each for the northern territories), today's Senate would consist of 40 Liberals, 28 Conservatives, 17 New Democrats, 12 Blocs, and two Greens.

More importantly, the previous two elections, which saw strong and abusive Chretien majorities in the Commons, would have produced similar Liberal minorities in the Senate.

Small wonder that Paul Martin has changed his mind about letting provinces name or elect senators, a promise Klein says he made to the premiers at last year's Grey Cup in Regina.

Martin's skating on thin political ice. The premiers--especially Ralph Klein--could break that ice by making this an issue.

Let's hope Klein does before Martin fills Aberta's vacant seats with three more Liberal flunkies.

You can suggest this to the premier by e-mailing him at premier@gov.ab.ca, or through his Web site, www.gov.ab.ca/premier.

- Link Byfield

[ivbinconned]

The Alberta Senate election creates a new democratic platform for Albertans to promote federal reform and provincial rights.

Democracy functions properly only with "checks and balances." In Canada today, the courts are too strong, the prime minister is too strong, and the central government is too strong.

Meanwhile, the provinces have become too weak, and the premiers too politically dependent on federal money. Canada wasn't supposed to work this way, but it does now.

A reformed Senate--one that's democratically accountable to the people of the various provinces--would be a useful check on premiers and prime ministers.

And the only way to reform it is to keep electing senators, to force the issue.

Paul Martin says he wants to end western alienation, and to close the "democratic deficit" in Parliament.

Well here's your chance, Paul, on a platter!

Federal reform goes well beyond electing senators, of course, but senators-elect (whether appointed or not) have a democratic mandate to speak for their province to the people of Canada.

We should stop relying entirely on premiers and provincial governments to do this, because they don't. How often, for example, have you heard any Alberta politicians mention that Ottawa siphons a net $10 billion each year out of their province? If they started talking about such things, people would expect them to do something about it.

Now, however, with oil reaching $50, the minority Liberals will soon recall how they won huge national majorities a generation ago. They only need to promise to deliver Alberta's resource earnings to eastern voters--all in the "national interest," of course. It worked before and it will work again.

Albertans need to be ready to fight back with everything they can.

That's why this Senate election matters!

- Link Byfield

[wilagro]

Thanks Ivbinconned...just what we needed. More cut and paste articles by good ol' "Link".

It will take a good many articles before I am convinced that our Alberta "election" of senators was a legitimate exercise.

Only when ALL of the provinces AGREE on the process of senatorial selection will Alberta's scheme have any validity.

[ivbinconned]

Happy to oblige wilagro.
It has to "start" somewhere!!

“All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which the are accustomed”
Thomas Jefferson

[cowman]

The US senate started out the same way...appointed and useless! When the states started electing them they became effective because they were elected. They now had a legitimate claim to be relevant!
They also became a very effective brake on the concept of the "dictatorship of the majority"? Do you think we might need this in Canada? What is to stop the majority right now from ripping off Alberta? In reality hasn't the rest of Canada been doing that for quite awhile? We send them $10 billion per year...that works out to about $3000 for every man, woman and child in Alberta!
Only with a truly triple E senate will the west move away from being anything more than a colony for central Canada.