Blue Like You

Archive for the ‘Chamber of Senile Second Thought’ Category

It sounds to me like Jack Layton is backing down just a bit.

Maybe it really is the Season of Miracles.

Meanwhile, Alberta Girl asks Raphael, "…how he can "stack" the senate when there would still be a majority of Liberal senators??"

Things that make you go hmmmmm…

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Update: This Canadian Press release has more:

…Harper has contended if his government falls the proper course would be a new election, rather than installation of a Liberal-NDP coalition.

Layton, however, maintained it would be unprecedented for the Governor General to send Canadians back to the polls so soon after the last election Oct. 14.

"That’s a virtual impossibility," Layton said Sunday.
"I think virtually everyone who knows the Constitution would tell you that."

That sounds like a dare to me.  Time for more letters, folks. Snail mail is best.

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Monday Update : Still with the Christmas theme, please check out Monte Solberg’s Bah, Humbug!

Don’t you just love the irony?

NDP MP Paul Dewar said the move to "stuff the Senate" proves the Conservatives have abandoned democratic reform.

"What Harper is practising is old politics, desperate politics, and quite frankly, pathetic politics," he said. "He has thrown out any credibility for the Conservatives in terms of being honestly democratic and wanting to do things differently.

"It’s sad, tired politics. You can’t appoint someone to an undemocratic institution then claim it will eventually be democratic because you say it’s so."

This from a man who is part of a Coalition designed to overturn the results of the last election, and which would have likely allowed the Senate appointment of Green Party Elizabeth May in exchange for her support of Stephane Dion, had Parliament not been prorogued. This from a man who props up a party that just had a coronation for leadership rather than consult the grassroots membership, and has thereby been complicit in the undemocratic installation of Michael Ignatieff as coalition leader.

You can’t blow and suck at the same time my friend. Well you could try, but you might have a brain fart.

Meanwhile, SDA reader VanIslander nails it:

As soon as the inevitable uproar comes he ought to just stand up and say - "This is the system that is in place and what I have to work with. No, it’s not a ‘fair’ system just as it wasn’t fair when the Liberals appointed all their cronies. It needs to be changed but every time the issue of change gets raised you all go crazy about that too …well it is time to put up and shut up or let the process of revamping the senate move forward."

Meanwhile, we have the predicted ‘outrage’ from the usual suspects .

ZZZzzzzzzzzzz…

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Update: Sandy is taking suggestions for Senate appointments.

Raphael doesn’t seem to be impressed -  Harper’s logic: Democracy through patronage .

And ChuckerCanuk for Senate. I agree.

Senate passes crime bill. - Céline was not impressed:

…There were more fireworks among the Liberals when Ms. Hervieux-Payette told the leader that some Liberal senators did not like the Tory crime bill and were threatening to amend it, clearly challenging his leadership.

Mr. Dion told his Senate leader, according to an insider, that this was unacceptable and that the bill must pass. Even Mr. Goodale got into the act in an attempt to talk her out of it…

Well whatever the motivation, thank you for passing this important legislation.

Great debate going on at MDL right now. Charlie makes a good point that all these Senate junkets are accountable to no one.

Way to go Charlie!

Interview available here. Watch Charlie take on the Liberal Senate.

CTV’s Graham Richardson has just reported that the Liberals walked out of the commons before the vote on the Senate.

CBC says the bottom line is that there won’t be an election over this vote.

I would say that the bottom line is actually that they were tired of sitting on their bottoms!

Update: Liberals walk out of of Confidence Vote on crime bill - CBC

4:25 Update: CTV - Tories table crime bill motion, Liberals walk out.

4:35 Motion passes as Grits abstain - Globe

David Akin was just on CTV commenting after the opening of today’s Question Period about the likelihood of an imminent election.

His thoughts were that if Duceppe makes a deal with Harper regarding aid for the forestry industry, then perhaps the Bloc will support the budget, which is a confidence motion.

And if the Government and Dion can find some common ground on Afghanistan, perhaps that confidence motion could be passed.

Which leaves the Senate-Crime confidence motion. My hope is that the plodding Liberal Senators finally become aware of the growing level of animosity and frustration among the population and even among certain provincial leaders, and do the right thing for the safety of Canadians.

So perhaps there may not be an election this spring after all; especially in view of the fact that there would be very little benefit to anyone.

Did anyone else see Liberal senator Sharon Carstairs on Mike Duffy Live tonight?

Please! I need to vent.

Related: Tories threaten election over crime bill - CTV

Halls of Macadamia - Hey Steffi…

ChuckerCanuk - Liberal Senate: “Don’t You Raise That Age of Consent!”

From this morning’s Globe - Harper would back Jack Layton’s bid to have a referendum on the Senate (H/T National Newswatch).

His preference is for reform with elected members:

The idea was broached by NDP Leader Jack Layton on the weekend. Tory Senator Hugh Segal has also put forward the notion of a nationwide plebiscite.

“If it came to the House, it would be hard not to support it,” a source told The Globe.

Sources were quick to add, however, that the Prime Minister’s preferred route is to elect members of the Senate. Mr. Harper has already introduced a series of bills designed to overhaul the Senate.

Jack’s idea is certainly worth considering! (H/T National Newswatch)

This morning, the Sun’s Angelo Persichilli asks the very question that I did a few days ago - Who’ll Stand Up for Ontario?

Persichilli argues that if the Atlantic MP’s feel that they are standing up for their provinces by opposing the budget, then all Ontario MP’s, regardless of political stripes, should be standing up for Ontario by supporting the budget, since Premier Dalton McGuinty supports it himself. (I would love to be at a family dinner with Dalton and David talking politics these days!)

Angelo also takes a shot at Dion’s self-proclaimed attributes of consistency and clarity:

Dion said in 2004 there was no fiscal imbalance but in 2006 (May 5 — Mike Duffy Live) he said that “we need to have a clause of this kind that gives a safety net to Ontario.” Is that clear? Doesn’t sound like it.

Moving on to the topic of the Senate approval of the budget now. Remember Senator Terry Mercer saying this? -

“I think you’ll find that senators from Nova Scotia, such as myself, from Newfoundland and Labrador, and probably from Saskatchewan, will all vote against it and I don’t think we’ll be alone,” Mercer said.

“If we care to mount a full-fledged campaign with our colleagues, I think we can defeat this bill.”

Assuming that he is referring to Ontario Senators among others, I wonder how he expects them to look their fellow citizens “in the eye” as he claims he is worried about in his own province.

Meanwhile, Mercer doesn’t seem to be on the same page as Liberal Senate leader Celine Hervieux-Payette, who assures us that:

“In my view, based on past experience, the likelihood is high that the budget implementation bill, notwithstanding its many failings, will pass in the Senate following a thorough examination,” she said.

Dion said in the release that the Senate has a “responsibility to conduct a thorough review” of the budget bill.

“I am confident that in the spirit of sober second thought that characterizes the Senate, honourable senators on both sides of the aisle will undertake that review in a measured and professional fashion,” he said.

The release seemed worded to avoid suggesting that Dion is telling the senators how to vote.

Yeah, right.

So, how’s that campaign going, Senator Mercer?