The Libranos: What Ever Happened To Senator Joyce?

Presumably, the Libranos won't wait to excuse Senator Fairburn until her skeleton appears.

But then the Libranos are skilled in the burying of untold skeletons. Seriously, the Liberal Senator Cowan has POA for Senator Fairburn...!

When the Libranos regain conciousness please let us all know...

Cheers

Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”

Make it stop.

This shouldn't be all that shocking. Ms. Fairbairn is a Liberal senator, something that is becoming relatively rare. She represents a seat in upper house of parliament and as such has value. Further, she represents an Alberta seat and we know how the Liberals feel about reforming the senate. The longer they keep senator Fairbairn in her seat the longer they postpone the entrance of another elected senator, I believe Doug Black. It is pure, crass, and all too understandable Liberal politics.

I didn't realize that she has an Alberta seat.

That is the reason why she was not allowed to retire gracefully.

This situation is very low class,incredibly low class.

It must be tough to go from stuffing paper bags with payola money to cradling an ill senator on political life support in order to meet a has been party's shady agenda.

You go Liberals...you da one!

I propose for health and ethical reasons we replace her with a bobble head doll, whenever they want a liberal vote, just twitch the doll..

Shows what level of cognitive ability one needs to be a Lieberal politician. I suspect that the other Lieberal senators are demanding that she stays as, if Alzheimer's precluded someone from being a politician, then it might mean requiring politicians to undergo mental status exams. I'm sure the results of such testing would be very informative and might explain a great deal about Lieberal policies.

Maybe PMSH can demonstrate the stupidity of this policy by appointing dead senators. I'm sure that Stan Waters would like to be on the senate again and we could have a medium channeling his votes.

I hope she has family to protect her being exploited by the liberals, it sickening watching the liberals become some filthy ole white boy's network of power mongers.

It is brilliant political tactics like this from the Liberal brain trust that has seen them achieve a solid third party status. This should really endear them to Alberta voters, who elected the last Liberal about 8 years ago.

Actually,she is probably the only Lieberal leftard in the country who we can prove has a brain! And she is probably WAY more cognitive than the average Lieberal/NDPeer politico/voter.

What this sad story reminds us of is this: as long as the Senate is partisan, it will be redundant to the House of Commons and therefore of limited value.

Why do so few discussions of Senate reform pass over the removal of party politics? Is it because those closely involved with the Senate are mixed up in one party or another and can't think outside the box to see it functioning any other way?

Where is the Human Rights organization? looks a lot like elder abuse to me.

Is it because those closely involved with the Senate are mixed up in one party or another and can't think outside the box to see it functioning any other way?
~turtle

Leftists do not deserve the benefit of the assignation of good faith.
If the Leftist provincial Premiers and their caucuses valued the advance of representative democratic means to the citizens of their several provinces they would already have senate elections lined up to coincide with their general elections and the question of having Joyce Fairbairn as a senile senator would be mooted by that new reality.

It's not a left-right thing, that's the point. Here in Alberta we have Senator-in-waiting elections, and candidates are presented by specific parties.

We need people to look out for their region and country, NOT their party, or some left-right ideal. The vast majority of important decisions aren't political decisions or left vs. right anyway, they're business decisions of right vs. wrong.

Loki nails it with, "Shows what level of cognitive ability one needs to be a Lieberal politician."

This shows the lows that the Liberals will go to keep a finger in the game.

Joyce Fairbairn should have resigned/retired with dignity when she was diagnosed.

I suspect that,as 'the rat' pointed out,the Liberals did not want an elected Conservative senator to replace her,so she held on to her seat as long as possible.

Was she "aided and abetted" with this decision? I don't know,but knowing the Liberals it is quite likely. They would throw their own mothers under the bus if it could give them another chance at the brass ring.

It's not a left-right thing, that's the point.
~turtle

It IS a Left/Right thing.
The Federal Liberals want to continue rewarding their provincial toadies with plum appointments and the Federal NDP want to do away with any sober second thought oversight altogether.
You must be unaware that the Provincial Liberals/NDP are wholey owned and operated subsidiaries of their Federal parties, which have zero interest in an elected senate.

In order to advance senate reform at all, the citizens of those provinces have to elect conservative governments first.

Why is a mentally incapacitated woman still holding public office? Better yet, who would allow it?

The next time some yahoo reminds you that we need the government to guide us bring this up.

This story gets more surreal by the moment. Here are some additional facts. Senator Fairbairn was declared mentally incompetent in February. Liberal Senate Leader James Cowan's Chief of Staff, a Leonard Kuchar, co-signed a power of care in April to act as an agent on Fairbairn’s behalf, along with her niece, Patricia McCullagh. Senate Liberal Leader Cowan along with his chief of staff also found it convenient to trot Fairbairn out to vote 12 times in the Senate, while also authorizing more than $85,000 in spending.

Makes one wonder about Denise Savoie, retiring as an MP, due to a "personal health scare", mere days after her 6 year vesting of the MP pension came into play.

How convenient

this story brought Hedy Fries to mind, totally incompetant

The sooner we ditch this useless collection of political Hacks and former Bagmen/Women from ALL parties the better off Canada will be.The Senate is nothing more than an insult to the people of Canada who are forced to pay these parasites huge amounts of money.If the political parties of all persuasions think they are worth that much in wages then let them pay them.Then we can elect our own Senators to represent the interests of OUR provinces instead of them being a rubber stamp for their respective political parties, who very seldom know or care what those interests may be.

Equal, elected, effective. Let the people decide.

I'm for senate reform but not abolition. I would like to see a triple e model but can't imagine that will ever happen.

Wonder where the other Alberta Liberal senators are on this issue? Got anything to add to this Grant Mitchell???

What has happened to Joyce Fairburn is very sad, but what the Liberals are doing in the wake of it is a travesty. They deserve to be a 3rd place party and universally despised.

"Got anything to add to this Grant Mitchell???"

Don't forget Tommy Banks and his magical piano.
Oops! Tommy retired from the senate when he reached the mandatory retirement age 75.

So Joyce Fairbairn has 3 years to go and she'll be gone before the next Canadian election.

When Joyce was declared mentally incompetent, the Liberals drive to keep her in the Senate is all about denying Albertans Senatorial representation. If the Liberal brain trust thought they could screw Albertans by spitting on PET's grave there would be a huge spittoon on PET's grave today.

The Senate needs far more reform than in the selection of Senators. If we are going to truly reform it, we need to determine what powers it ought to have along with its composition. In theory, today, the Senate could gridlock Parliament to the point that the government simply could not function and there would be no means to break the gridlock short of an intervention by the Governor General (see Australia, 1975). Give Senators democratic legitimacy and they just might do it.

The thing is largely benign in its current state. If we're going to reform it, we have to do more than "Triple E!" it (do those proponents ever stop to think that a triple-E Senate by province will never have a majority that would be capable of reforming equalization payments, for example?). If we can't or won't, abolish it and be done with it.

Having been judged mentally incompetent due to Alzheimer's should be no bar to staying in the Senate. She's not going to vote any differently than she did before she got sick anyway, it isn't like she decided her votes is it?

You could train a dog to do what senators do, vote the way the party tells them.

Did a bit of thinking about this situation overnight and my opinion of the Lieberal party just dropped a few notches -- never thought it could go any lower.

One has to consider what the repercussions would be if a person who was a non-politician was diagnosed with Alzheimers of sufficient severity that they were unable to handle their own affairs. A doctor or lawyer would be required to immediately cease practicing their profession. The only occupations that are compatible with Alzheimer's are purely manual ones as motor learning is often preserved for a while when cognitive function is non-existent. Still, such people need extensive supervision such as the patient of mine who raked the same spot on his lawn over and over again even though there were no leaves there. I suppose there might be a very specialized market for prostitutes with Alzheimers.

I really hope that there's an investigation into this matter and wish there was some mechanism to eject the Lieberals who knowingly abetted this travesty. What is needed is a twice yearly mental status examination of every senator to see if they are competent to vote on legislation. We currently require periodic medical examinations of elderly drivers and I've had some very ticked off demented patients when I've told them they were no longer fit to drive. Curiously, even though they can't remember what I told them 30 seconds before, they seem to have a clear memory of me as the bad doctor who took away their drivers license.

Phantom, you have a good point there. Trained dogs would be a lot cheaper than human senators. Senate debates might be a bit difficult to transcribe and close watch would have to be kept on people attempting to influence senators votes with various doggie treats.

It's just oh so obvious.

The LIBRANOs need the vote and without the ability to appoint a LIBRANO in her place...they try to keep her in place.

As I commented above, it's all about holding the seat and stopping another elected Alberta senator from taking a seat.

I would agree to abolition of the Senate if I thought for a moment the House of Commons could be trusted.
Unfortunately this is not possible.
Not with the likes of mulcaire looking to become prime minister.