Right, Phil; every bit of CPC legislation, including dumping the Long Gun Registry, would have been blocked by a Liberal Majority.
We would likely have been governed by a Lib, NDP coalition back in 08/09.
Via Wikipedia, “The Constitution Act, 1867, establishes a quorum of 15 members (including the member presiding) for the Senate.”
Having said that, some opportunist PM down the line would surely decide that 90 of his closest friends deserved to be senators. Oops! So much for attrition.
Curious how there’s no mention of electing senators. Must be too radical a concept for those who believe that the vast majority of the population is incapable of voting for the right people.
What is needed is an expanded role for the senate in which it not only determines whether legislation is passed into law, but it would also have the right to repeal any and all legislation passed by the HOC in the past. A senate with those role would be the most important part of the government as there is currently no mechanism to repeal useless legislation. Given that all organisms spend as much time tearing down as the spend building up, the accumulation of statist legislation can be viewed as analagous to either the buildup of arterial plaque or amyloid in the Alzheimer’s brain. Having a senate which could chose to repeal any legislation would result in a society which would have a new lease on life instead of being legislated to death.
Those individuals who would seek senate positions would hopefully be the most likely to do some serious pruning of the overgrowth of regulation in Canada.
Loki
sounds good, but could you even imagine one gov’t making laws, the next shreading them, that puppy would be like a legal yoyo:-))))
wallyj
the senate “passes” the law, and that is the law, so without the senate, no law would git passed, , or the Queen would need to do so, and could U imagine the idiot in waiting getting that much power????
This is exactly what would happen if the cockamamie idea was acted upon.
I believe that all laws should have expiry dates.
Any new law would require at least one outdated law be scrapped.
Give the legislators the job of justifying and reenacting all laws as their expiry date approaches.
That way they wouldn’t be so inclined to keep on piling up laws upon laws.
Oh, and ban all lawyers from political office.
it is interesting to speculate on ways to cut the senate but a constitutional amendment is the only way.
The Star columnist didn’t get the updated required talking points. The greatest fear our leftist friends have now, is that PM Harper will actually do something about the Senate.
This is the intellectual level supporting the smear campaign of Rob Ford. The Mayor is just too ordinary for Canada’s, not just Toronto’s, superior people to accept.
Man! except for the crack smoking thing, done with what Ford thought were just people put down by the system, there isn’t anything brought up as a scandal I haven’t done. Cheers;
“….and the “jobs for the boys” mentality articulated by former prime minister Brian Mulroney and exemplified by Harper have pushed many once-ambivalent Canadians into the abolitionist camp.”
Y’see,all Chretien’s appointments were brilliant intellectuals imbued with a passionate sense of patriotism and civic duty.
Like Frank Mahovlich.
Here’s another idea – Why not appoint senators as we do a jury? I.E., pick them at random from voter lists or the telephone book with proportional regional representation. At the very least the common folk have ethics and morals that the incumbents seem to lack.
Laws with expiry dates?
I like it! And 100 year laws would require more votes than 10 year laws.
One can dream.
Good Lord no! There are enough LIVs out there; can you imagine a LIV Senator?
Wait a minute……….
The Senate should be a dumping ground for the severely handicapped. Kind of the ultimate social program combined with a lotto win.
“All it requires is an unequivocal commitment from every current and future candidate for the Prime Minister’s office never to appoint a senator.”
Like that would hold. I can just imagine if the NDP were ever to form government (God forbid!) with 80 vacancies in the upper house. You think they wouldn’t fill them in a trice? (If so I have this bridge for sale….)
I did not read the whole article,but I do believe that it says in the Constitution that the Senate cannot be allowed to drop below a certin level.
Liberals and the NDP would surely like a bunch of empty seats to fill with their cronies. Idiot columnists get paid for this stuff, amazing.
Perhaps take a page from Quebec and buy them all off.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/how-quebec-abolished-its-senate-in-one-simple-step-1.1536047
Right, Phil; every bit of CPC legislation, including dumping the Long Gun Registry, would have been blocked by a Liberal Majority.
We would likely have been governed by a Lib, NDP coalition back in 08/09.
Via Wikipedia, “The Constitution Act, 1867, establishes a quorum of 15 members (including the member presiding) for the Senate.”
Having said that, some opportunist PM down the line would surely decide that 90 of his closest friends deserved to be senators. Oops! So much for attrition.
Curious how there’s no mention of electing senators. Must be too radical a concept for those who believe that the vast majority of the population is incapable of voting for the right people.
What is needed is an expanded role for the senate in which it not only determines whether legislation is passed into law, but it would also have the right to repeal any and all legislation passed by the HOC in the past. A senate with those role would be the most important part of the government as there is currently no mechanism to repeal useless legislation. Given that all organisms spend as much time tearing down as the spend building up, the accumulation of statist legislation can be viewed as analagous to either the buildup of arterial plaque or amyloid in the Alzheimer’s brain. Having a senate which could chose to repeal any legislation would result in a society which would have a new lease on life instead of being legislated to death.
Those individuals who would seek senate positions would hopefully be the most likely to do some serious pruning of the overgrowth of regulation in Canada.
Loki
sounds good, but could you even imagine one gov’t making laws, the next shreading them, that puppy would be like a legal yoyo:-))))
wallyj
the senate “passes” the law, and that is the law, so without the senate, no law would git passed, , or the Queen would need to do so, and could U imagine the idiot in waiting getting that much power????
This is exactly what would happen if the cockamamie idea was acted upon.
I believe that all laws should have expiry dates.
Any new law would require at least one outdated law be scrapped.
Give the legislators the job of justifying and reenacting all laws as their expiry date approaches.
That way they wouldn’t be so inclined to keep on piling up laws upon laws.
Oh, and ban all lawyers from political office.
it is interesting to speculate on ways to cut the senate but a constitutional amendment is the only way.
The Star columnist didn’t get the updated required talking points. The greatest fear our leftist friends have now, is that PM Harper will actually do something about the Senate.
This is the intellectual level supporting the smear campaign of Rob Ford. The Mayor is just too ordinary for Canada’s, not just Toronto’s, superior people to accept.
Man! except for the crack smoking thing, done with what Ford thought were just people put down by the system, there isn’t anything brought up as a scandal I haven’t done. Cheers;
“….and the “jobs for the boys” mentality articulated by former prime minister Brian Mulroney and exemplified by Harper have pushed many once-ambivalent Canadians into the abolitionist camp.”
Y’see,all Chretien’s appointments were brilliant intellectuals imbued with a passionate sense of patriotism and civic duty.
Like Frank Mahovlich.
Here’s another idea – Why not appoint senators as we do a jury? I.E., pick them at random from voter lists or the telephone book with proportional regional representation. At the very least the common folk have ethics and morals that the incumbents seem to lack.
Laws with expiry dates?
I like it! And 100 year laws would require more votes than 10 year laws.
One can dream.
Good Lord no! There are enough LIVs out there; can you imagine a LIV Senator?
Wait a minute……….
The Senate should be a dumping ground for the severely handicapped. Kind of the ultimate social program combined with a lotto win.
“All it requires is an unequivocal commitment from every current and future candidate for the Prime Minister’s office never to appoint a senator.”
Like that would hold. I can just imagine if the NDP were ever to form government (God forbid!) with 80 vacancies in the upper house. You think they wouldn’t fill them in a trice? (If so I have this bridge for sale….)