Not the Senate you thought you knew

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/07/2021 (1549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HERE is some free advice from a longtime parliamentary nerd: if you plan to visit Ottawa and want to see the Senate in action, please be advised that it is not located where it used to be. Owing to extensive renovations to the Parliament buildings, senators have been relocated to a former railway station across the street.

Also, be aware that owing to the pandemic, the Senate has met infrequently over the past 18 months, has now adjourned for the summer and will not reconvene until Sept. 21, assuming we are not into a fall election by then.

The image of senators gathered in an abandoned station where trains no longer come and go will be seen by many Canadians as symbolic of an appointed upper house they regard as an anachronism in a 21st-century democracy. For most of Canada’s history, the Senate has been seen by large swaths of the public as a useless institution populated by patronage-appointed party hacks who are overpaid, underworked and contribute little or nothing, either collectively or individually, to the national policy process.

The Senate has never been, and will never be, a perfect institution. However, it has always performed more useful work in the national governing process, particularly through its committee inquiries into public policy issues, than is popularly imagined. All prime ministers have used Senate appointments as political patronage to reward past or anticipated future service to the governing party. This did not mean that such appointees necessarily lacked relevant experience and knowledge to be effective senators.

Many individual senators made valuable contributions until they reached the official retirement age of 75.

As a result of developments over the past decade, today’s Senate is a much-improved institution. In 2011, Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper proposed consultative elections conducted at the provincial level to select appointees. Three years later, the Supreme Court rejected the proposal, ruling that such a major constitutional reform required the consent of the provinces. In practical terms, this meant Senate reform would have to proceed in a more incremental manner.

In the 2015 federal election, the Trudeau Liberals sought to capitalize on the public anger toward the Senate, which was mired in an expense-abuse scandal, by promising to create an independent, non-partisan institution. Having achieved a majority government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established an independent advisory board to make non-binding recommendations for nominees to fill vacant Senate seats. Any Canadian citizen meeting the assessment criteria could apply to be considered for nomination.

Initially, informal direction was given to the board to avoid the nomination of partisan individuals, an instruction that meant few of the new senators possessed the political skills of negotiation and compromise required in the parliamentary process.

Since 2016 there have been 55 appointments, the most recent being three new senators appointed on June 22. The roster of new senators has included many distinguished, highly accomplished individuals from a wide variety of occupational backgrounds. Many of the new senators were urban professionals who brought small-l liberal attitudes to the job, leading Conservatives to dismiss the Liberal claim that a non-partisan Senate had been created.

Among the current 12 vacancies in the Senate are two from Alberta that its conservative UCP provincial government insists should be filled through an election held for that purpose. Not surprisingly, Erin O’Toole, Conservative leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, has supported Premier Jason Kenney by pledging, should he become prime minister, to appoint the winners of such a contest.

Senate elections, O’Toole insists, would result in accountability to voters — but this assumes term limits for senators, which was part of the Harper plan rejected by the Supreme Court.

Today’s Senate is non-partisan in the sense that most senators are not subject to the discipline of a party whip. Instead, there are organized groupings of like-minded senators, the largest being the Independent Senators Group (41 members today), which has worked most closely with the government. The Conservative Party of Canada (dwindled to 20 members) sees itself as the official opposition. There are also a Progressive Senators Group (12 members), a Canadian Senators Group (12 members) and eight unaffiliated senators.

Reflecting this swirling constellation of groups, there have been prolonged negotiations over the rules, the allocation of committee places and the provision of budgetary resources. The Senate was slow to adapt to the pandemic by adopting a hybrid — in-person and virtual — mode of operation. Since March 2020, the Senate has held just 14 meetings, mostly to pass pandemic-related bills. Its much-vaunted committee system has been dormant.

Overall, however, Trudeau’s Senate reforms have been constructive. Senate independence has been demonstrated by a greater willingness to delay bills for further study and to amend them. Contrary to the fear of some critics, the new Senate has not used its absolute veto to block a bill, nor has it regularly played “Ping-Pong,” moving bills back and forth to the House of Commons to achieve agreement on a common version.

In short, the new senators have acted responsibly by providing the “sober second thought” the Constitution prescribes.

Paul G. Thomas is professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.