In his reflections lauding Sir John A. as a statesman rather than just a politician, Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes the statement that, in Canada, we have “one of the longest, unbroken sequences of a constitutional order on earth today.”
However, Parliament’s Junior Version of FAQs on the Senate states, “Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, called the Senate a place of “sober second thought,” and also goes on to say, “The Senate is responsible for protecting the rights and interests of Canadians in all regions, especially minority groups or people who do not often get a chance to present their opinions to Parliament.”
In ironic contrast, the current Senate, as reshaped by Harper, is no longer performing this constitutional function. A recent blatant example is, just before Christmas, the Senate voted, “… to give final approval to a Conservative bill related to unions even though the legislation contains obvious errors.”
The Senate had earlier sent this error-ridden bill back to the House of Commons the first time it was presented. Sent back to them by the Conservative majority a second time with continuing errors, the Harper-appointed Senate majority passed it and later, for the first time, legislated limited debate in the Senate on certain bills. Stephen Harper errs in stating Canada has ” … one of the longest, unbroken sequences of a constitutional order on earth today.” Errs, ironically, because he has himself altered the Senate from the place of “sober second thought” of Sir John A. to an extension of the will of the Prime Minister of the day.
Joe Hueglin
