Prime Minister Stephen Harper will introduce a bill calling for a plebiscite on the choice of Senate candidates on Wednesday.
He announced the plan at that morning’s Conservative caucus meeting, and said it will form the next plank in his bid to introduce more accountability to Parliament hill.
“This way the Senate will be more accountable, more credible and more democratic,” Mr. Harper said.
“After a century and-a-half, democracy will finally come to the Senate of Canada.”
Update – Someone please check on Jason Cherniak. I think he’s he’s having a stroke.
Warwick : Have you ever had an original thought? Your comments consist of 1)fawning lickspittle opinions of Kate, Harper or whoever the Tory of the day is or 2)playing the part of the mindless thug, eager to kick who is ever on the ground because the rest of the kids are doing it. You’re a dope and a dupe. Learn to live with it.
Bruce : Thanks for reading me. We’ll work on Comprehension and understanding next week.
Don, are we still on for math tomorrow? 🙂
CBC news misquoted Harper’s words consistently today!
At least they are consistent!
Some new libcomsimp tilting at dragons here?
Don???
I would hope that the Liberals would support the concept of democratizing the Senate appointment process as much as possible as soon as possible.
Perhaps it’s too much to expect of such folks, who depend on a Liberal majority in the Senate to rubber stamp whatever they want when in power and to block Tory bills that aren’t in the interest of the Liberal Party.
And, beg pardon, but I just can’t resist a little partisan shot…
–Well, thank God one never finds bigotry, racism, intolerance or just plain ignorance in the “Liberal” Party of Canada!
Not to mention inept, entitlist crooks and liars.
Three dozen simultaneous, continuing criminal investigations into the Liberal Party. Plus, with the Federal Accountability Act now passed, the Liberals can be expected to do everything in their power to force an election as soon as bloody possible to prevent the Auditor General from finally looking into the very places the Liberals never let her look and finding out what happened to billions and billions of our tax dollars. I would love to know precisely what happened to the billions that went into the secretive, mysterious “foundations” and much, much more…
Don, still arrogant, I see. Still posting the ad hominem demonization of conservatives and SDA.
Gimme a break.
Liberals always point fingers to divert attention from the reality that it is they who possess the very qualities of which they falsely accuse others.
Rich. Very rich, coming from a Librano.
The “Liberals” are sweating bullets. No wonder they’ve sicced a has-been spin doctor upon Canada’s premier conservative blogsite… again…
I wonder if this don dolt isnt actually ok4ua in drag??????? His undying devotion to the liberano way makes me also wonder what liberano he really is. What a commie scumbag!!!
Don,
If that’s the best you can do you’ve proven my point nicely.
Thanks
Free: I’ve questioned many actions and candidates of the Liberal Party on my blog. If you’re going to comment, have the courtesy of doing a little reading first.
C.S.: You crack me up. You’re good for a laugh every day as you launch your latest screed based, well, usually based on nothing. I really wish though you’d explain your unending fascination with farts and women peeeing standing up.
FREE
No Don can’t be ok4ua.
ok4ua is deeply and fanatically in love with Lorne Calvert and the Saskatchewan Dippers.
He thinks even the Libs are right wing.
Why would I sully my computer by visit you scummy weblog don? Is this your way of raising your hits on the counter? You cover your tracks well even google cant track you.
Whats it like being a member of the natural ruling party? It must suck to know that your gravy train has not only dried up but every one of you are going to be investigated then hopefully jailed!!!
A quote from Don on S. Taylors blog.
”
Is it truely more fun to make jokes and personal insults about Liberals rather than wonder why this latest incarnation of the Tory party has recent poll results only a cliff diver could love?
Don | Homepage | 12.13.06 – 10:06 am | # ”
Gee Don,try practicing what you preach.Oh ya,you said you were a Liberal=hypocrite.
Might i point out that Liberals had 40% and Conservatives 25% in polling last December during the election campaign.How did that turn out for you?
As for results lets see.Went from Liberal majority to minority to opposition.Don’t hurt yourself on the way down.
Crabgrass at 3:01pm
“Molarmauler, can you tell me anything about Dianne Haskett or Rob Anders?”
Sure I can, if you can tell me what either of these situations has to do with Harper’s continuing push to make the party and the country more democratic.
Contrary to your implication, there was a nomination process, including an election, in the case of Dianne Haskett.
In the case of Rob Anders, he was elected by acclamation.
I admit there were complaints about the process in both the cases you mention, the Anders case had the party sued by some who felt they impeded from running. That doesn’t alter the facts that Harper has a policy in place where no incumbent is safe and no one is imposed on the riding by the party leader.
I’m sure due process will run it’s course in both situations.
Now tell me, what does your examples have to do with Dion imposing female candidates over the will of his riding associations? Or are they just a simple lefty retort to throw out in the face of real democratic initiatives?
Chantel Hebert on Dion:
“Not since the days of Kim Campbell has a rookie federal leader been granted the gift of a honeymoon of the magnitude currently enjoyed by the Liberals’ Stephane Dion.
In 1993, Campbell’s leadership vctory translated into a double-digit jump in the polls. The Tories moved into the lead in voting intentions for the first time in years. It was a position they held going into the lacklustre campaign that left their party with only two seats a few months later.”
Ouch.
She goes on to say that Harper should call an election sooner, rather than later, so that the rookie will get less experience and exposure.
Well, I don’t know. I think the comparison is a little cruel towards Campbell. She, afterall, wasn’t a French Citizen Surrender Monkey.
And she didn’t have the negative effects of bloggers, such as ‘Don,’ saddly equipped with the IQ level of protozoa, promoting her party.
paulstuff, head to my blog for a picture of what happens if you pay to much attention to mid-winter polls.
“Warwick : Have you ever had an original thought? Your comments consist of 1)fawning lickspittle opinions of Kate, Harper or whoever the Tory of the day is or 2)playing the part of the mindless thug, eager to kick who is ever on the ground because the rest of the kids are doing it. You’re a dope and a dupe. Learn to live with it”
Just in case i’ve confused you Don,heres one of your posts featuring,uh jokes and insults.
Since Don seems to have lots of time on his hands today maybe he could explain to this rube how Dion is finally going to meet Canada’s Kyoto commitments.
In your own words Don,if you please.
Hey molarmauler HAHAHAHAHA
I would have commented on your blog but I dont do the regi thing.
As a general rule if I have to regi I dont even bother visiting.
I see that Don has nothing to add other than silly utterances about bodily functions.
I also note that Don hasn’t said whether he likes the idea of democratizing the Senate appointment process. I assume he’s against anything that takes away the ability of the Liberal Party of Canada to impose its own bizarre, twisted ideologies on Canadians against their will.
But that is the nature of Liberals: to rule as absolutely as possible and as undemocratically as possible… to exploit Canada for their own personal enrichment.
I fear not the Librano spin doctors. I understand their tactics and mentality and know that they’ll never, never change. That is their fatal flaw.
It also doesn’t help that their new Supreme Overlord happens to have pledged loyalty to France, of which he’s a citizen and has actually been a member of the separatist Parti quebecois, a party infamous for having a drunken leader who blamed the ’95 Referendum loss on ethnic minorities, plus another leader who actually said that Quebec needed “more white babies”. Shameful that the Liberals would pick someone with such a past affiliation! One cannot help but wonder just what their true, hidden “ideology” really is! Just imagine what the Liberals would be saying about Harper if he had been a member of the Western Canada Concept, which he never was.
Not impressed with Stephanie Dion. Sorry. Just another Librano, he.
“I quite enjoy the elevated level of debate someone like richfisher brings to the table.”
Well, truth be told, with no more brown envelopes being brought to the Don’s table,… it’s been a little lonely.
Don, message from Alphonse;
Joe Morselli sleeps with the fishs.
Molarmauler, this bill would only enable the PM to get a notion of public opinion. If the PM doesn’t agree with it, what do you think will happen?
Canadian Sentinel, don’t you think that calling it the democratization of the Senate appointment process is a bit grand?
With respect to Dion’s efforts to increase the number of women in the house of commons (or, for the moment, in the Liberal party), it remains to be seen (correct me if I’m wrong here) exactly how he will go about this. Maybe we shouldn’t trash him on it until we see the plan… But if you have no plans to vote for the Liberals any time soon, why get yourself worked up over this?
Listening to Liberal senator George Baker on Mike Duffy live is nothing short of painfull. He just admited that because they have a majority in the senate he doesn’t want change…. go figure!
Tried to over complicate things and create confusion because he knows hes riding the gravy train into the sunset. Also said he wasn’t for term limits (8 years)
rd
reddeer:
Liberal Senator George Baker is suggesting you can be an anachronism in your own time!
Maybe he is archaeologically/geologically challenged.
I thought fossils were usually found around Drumheller.
Canadian Sentinel, don’t you think that calling it the democratization of the Senate appointment process is a bit grand? -Crabgrass
–Well, Crabgrass, I think that the Senate itself is a bit grand. Actually, too bloody grand!
No, I don’t think it’s “grand” to call it thusly. It’s a proper description. What else shall one call it? A rainbow trout?
Crabgrass, I, with several friends, were quite involved in the Liberal Party in the early ’90’s. It was precisely Chretien’s parachute-token-female candidates who took the place of the people the local constituents wanted to nominate that was the last straw that sent several of us packing from the Liberal Party.
The question gets down to whether we should work for equal opportunity or equal outcome. If there’s no reason to believe that the system is purposely excluding individuals from the selection process, than perhaps we should just accept that for the time being fewer women will be in our Parliament. I’m willing to see what Dion’s plan is, but having been a Liberal, forced nominations wouldn’t surprise me.
Indeed, the Senate Chamber is loaded with fossils.
They’re currently about as useful as the ones one finds embedded within rocks.
And a lot less interesting.
Has anyone notices the new liberano catch fraise “mean spirited” as I watched CPAC today EVERY liberano used it.
I’m usually a reader, not a poster but am finding myself increasingly annoyed at the Libs who like to come to this blog and needle other posters. Frankly, most Liberal blogs are as boring as watching paint dry so I can understand the thrill they must get from actual responses to some of the more ridiculous assertions they make. Maybe the schoolyard bully tactics work elsewhere but I come here to be informed, something, unfortunately I can’t get in the MSM. To the regulars on this site: I read you guys all the time and I think you are all fabulous. Thanks!
no no no people, we must do the neo-french/lieberal (ie m. deeon) thing and execute all the land holding senatorial types of old and their inheritors of the power behind the mace.
LOL !!!
Nice diversionary tactic to move away from focusing on who/the why of the choice for the new commissioner of the RCMP. Who gives a tinkers phoque (apparently this expression is widely allowed en francais on P.Q. airwaves so it should be o.k. for the rest of us) about the senate anyway.
Without being fluently bilingual, how many builders of Canada would be excluded from the short list or even the long list?
Or the matter of making multi-millionaires out of not only Arar but it is now sounding like the other three as well.
Or focusing on the Bilingual Issue that has been ruled on by “the courts” in terms of “applying” the Official Languages Act/S-3 to an RCMP detachment that happens to be on the border of Nova Scotia/New Brunswick and on the Trans-Canada Highway. Senator Mme. Tardiff (AB) in the Senate – not enough she says, there are many more detachments along the same highway right across Canada. (Senate committee/Dec 4 on CPAC.
Or in the same senate committee hearing where Senator Mme. Jaffer (BC)is more than a little emphatic that equal French/English broadcast hours during the 2010 Olympic Games is not enough – we must do more for ethnic languages.
Official Bilingualism is about to be rammed down our throats whether we like it or not. Talk about the senate at this stage in the game isn’t going to cut it. In the same official bilingual committee hearing is John Baird emphasizing that major areas of his own concern as regards applying Official Bilingualism are legal and educational.
Let’s see talk of the senate as what it is – an attempt to appease his western supporters after his famous motion about Quebec nationhood. It seems like a federal election is almost a sure thing in the spring and if that happens, it will not be a good thing for the West. Time to seriously look at Plan B.
The only choices are plan b or move to seattle. Either work for me.
VIVA Liberta ALBERTA!!!
CS, I just think calling it the “democratization” of the Senate appointment process lends this proposed change way more merit than it deserves. I like your idea – I would be comfortable using the term “rainbow trout”.
Shane, there’s a decent chance I’ll agree with you on this particular point when the dust has settled, depending on how it’s done.
I am, however, excited about what appears to me to be happening to the political landscape right now.
Don: Perhaps the biggest difference between CPC and Liberal voters is CPC supporters vote based on ideas and actions while Liberal supporters apparently vote based on who has the best “aura”. Makes a lot of sense to me.
Re: Lord Kitch’s comment at 2:34 – “Could this announcement BE more meaningless?”
Yes – It could be a 15 year old liberal “Red Book”. How meaningless was that?
Re: Don
Waste of time and energy. Let the Liberal lackey choke on his own bile.
Yup. The new Liberal spook line when referring to Conservatives is ‘mean spirited.’
On Duffy, the Liberal (whatever his name was) accused the Conservatives of being ‘mean spirited’ for cutting all the educational, literacy and student programs. Jason Kenney replied, “It’s very strange that you continue to accuse us of cutting funding towards programs that don’t even exist.”
The bogus ‘programs’ the Liberals are referring to were part of their plans prior to losing the last election. Liberals are the darkest of liars. Little wonder they’re in bed with Islamofascists – they both practice the same deceitful tactic – taqiyya.
Yup. The new Liberal spook line when referring to Conservatives is ‘mean spirited.’
On Duffy, the Liberal (whatever his name was) accused the Conservatives of being ‘mean spirited’ for cutting all the educational, literacy and student programs. Jason Kenney replied, “It’s very strange that you continue to accuse us of cutting funding towards programs that don’t even exist.”
The bogus ‘programs’ the Liberals are referring to were part of their plans prior to losing the last election. Liberals are the darkest of liars. Little wonder they’re in bed with Islamofascists – they both practice the same deceitful tactic – taqiyya.
Incumbant liberals cannot be challenged for a nomination, so that means the women will have to be appointed in ridings now held by conservatives, bloc and ndp. Sorry BC, you are stuck with crosses are burning Fry. How many women are in the liberal caucus, subtract that from 103 and you can figure out how many the dictator will appoint. Will a woman be appointed to fill the Paul Martin and Lapierrer ridings. And, how many women will have to do a Monica to get the appointment. Of course maybe some of Sergos strippers will fit the bill. Elected senators might work with their prov premier, and perhaps provinces with ndp leaders could get some ndp senators elected. Couldn’t be worse than it is now. There are about 10 vacancies at present. Will Harper appoint conservatives, with the promise they will resign and run for election when the time comes. Better to do that than take the chance of a dion win, and another 10 libranos and media types will get the jobs. Craig has been waiting a long time for his due. Will dion just appoint women. Any liberal woman who gets appointed as a candidate will face all the snide remarks possible, especially with BS speaking for all women. My question, whose marriage will they break up.
I’d like to see the damn thing abolished. It’s a waste of money.
Posted by: Warwick at December 13, 2006 01:44 PM
That’s always been my opinion too, However, in the UK recently a disastrous “anti blasphemy” law, which passed in the commons, was killed in the House of Lords — by one vote (I think). That would be the law which would have criminalized all critical commentary (what little there is!) on Islam and the Islamist fifth columnists who are wrecking “Great” Britain.
“making multi-millionaires out of not only Arar ”
well clipper, seeing as Arar could be DEAD right now if not for the beelzebub persistence of his wife against the likes of billyboy graham, I think it apropo to ‘send a message’ to those responsible.
I suggest taking the settlement out of zaccy zacardelli’s severance and pension and ASSets until its paid off.
O.K don so you are a troll: never mind this is the internet, I wish you were a little more respectful of my intelligence and of the thoughtful intelligence of the caring Canadians who comment here.
I am with PM Stephen Harper all the way on this one.
I have along standing debate with an older ex-liberal global corporate lawyer, a very wise man indeed.
I argue that all provinces and even territories should all have an equal number of elected Senators ( I think ten each just to keep things interesting and democratic) he maintains that population should be the determining factor and I argue that a “province by any other population would be just as important and an essential part of Canada”.
Also who could have predicated the risen population in the west Alberta in particular only a few years ago?
The old eastern establishment are justly terrified of our new PM Stephen Harper. Here at last is an authentic Canadian nationalist, who finally is “one of us”.
For all the slander and spin coming from the left I am convinced that the Canadian people will give PM Stephen Harper the majority he needs to reclaim Canada and sett us truly on our feet for the future.
Cherniak says “The argument for an elected Senate is that elected politicians are supposed to be better than unelected politicians. The theory is that an election makes you more “representative”. I’m not sure what other reasons there might be.”
Canadians don’t like to be dictated to by appointees who merely reflect past political masters.
Canadians believe people who wield political power should answer to the people directly without being appointed for life.
Canadians want real democracy, not the sham of democracy.
add your own reasons below
“Mean spirited” isn’t a new Librano epithet. They’ve been using it for years.
That’s fine if they want to continue using it. I’ll use it against them, too. The more it goes back and forth, the more the Canadian electorate will consider “mean spirited” to be as meaningful as “poopypants”, “peepee head” or “booger brain”.
They’re too stupid and worn out to come up with new epithets, so they use the same old ones. Then again, nothing ever changes with the “Liberals”!
CHECK OUT CBCPRAVDAS COVERAGE OF THE SENATE REFORM OTHER THAN STEPHAN ITS “ALL LIBERALS , ALL THE TIME”
http://www.cbc.ca/video/
NEXT IT GOT TO BE CBC REFORM!!!!
Elected Librano politicians in particular are better then unelected Librano politicians.
Why? you ask…
Simple. Because you get to kick their rancid asses back to Pluto when you finally catch the power-crazed, lying, thieving, hypocrits red-handed stealing from the cookie jar.
“After a century and-a-half, democracy will finally come to the Senate of Canada.”
With democracy comes power. With power comes greed, corruption, waste, porkbarreling and the horsetrading of other people’s property and freedoms. That’s just what Canada needs – another bunch of arrogrant, greedy, corrupt blowhards buying elections with stolen property and then rubbing it in taxpayers’ faces by saying that all of their fraudulent and corrupt big-government spending represents “the will of the poeple”.
If you care about rights – real rights – and not about joining a party and seizing power over other people’s rights through gerrymandering and demogoguery, then I think you will be better off fighting for your rights against only one gang of self-important, democratically elected jackasses than if you double your trouble and add another opponent to the mix. Expecting that the people will elect a legislative body which will somehow provide better supervision and enforce better accountability over another elected legislative body – elected by the same people – is ridiculous.
Hey Canadian Sentinel “mean spirited” and all the rest of the vacuous shyte that they talk on the MSM wont change a thing because Canadians at last after thirty odd years of PET indused somnambulisms are finally waking up.
This PM Stephen Harper is the best thing that has ever happened to us who both understand this countries meaning and love it.
Do you really want to reform the senate??? Abolish it. It’s outdated and we don’t need more politicians in Ottawa. It has USA written all over it and we are not the United States of Canada.
It’s very revealing to read the comments of those opposed to senate reform, bending themselves 180 degrees to oppose citizen input. Indeed, this proposal is far from perfect, but it’s a start toward a democratic process. Those complaining are admitting how much they love having a senate full of liberal hacks and bagmen who can still lay a cold, dead hand on anything they don’t like, at least temporarily.
On second thought, make that cold, dead, fat, greasy hand still bearing faint traces of other people’s money.
I saw Baker on tv tonight, as much as i cld stand. I hope many, many liberal senators appear on tv in the near future, getting red faced and angry and waving their fingers. It’ll be great during an election campaign and this crew is just stupid enough to do it.
“Steve, like all good Conservatives
from Pinochet
to Adolf*,
don’t want to take the chance on there being too
much democracy given too the masses.”
From the blog of the Voice of the Liberal Party of Canada, aka Cherniak. …-
The Liberal Party line;
CTV.ca | Graham compares Tories to Nazi propagandists
I think this was a brilliant move on the part of PMSH. This is one issue that can get supposedly sophisticated liebral voting Vancouverites really annoyed. People in BC are damn pissed off at the disparity in seats that BC has (one Vancouver riding has a higher number of voters than all 4 PEI ridings) and they’ve shown in the past that they’ll punish any party that tries to maintain eastern domination. In 1993 people who I would have never suspected of voting Reform did so because they were so pissed off at the attempts of Ottawa to screw the west. One premonition of this that only became significant was when I was in an elevator heading out to vote against the Meech Lake accord a transexual hooker who lived in the same building got in. S/he? started ranting against the Meech Lake accord. We’d never talked before and this was one surprising thing we had in common.
The liebrals are toast as if they oppose this they will be seen as fundamentally anti-democratic and I’d love to see how they will try to sell this in BC. PMSH is thinking so far ahead of the intellectual lightweights of the liebral party that they’re still trying to deal with his previous surprises when he springs a new one on them. Restores my faith in the guy.
ok4ua, Senates aren’t “American”, many countries have them.
I hope this doesn’t break any blog rules but a post by oldguy at The Shotgun explains the purpose of an upper house very well.
“Canada is a FEDERAL country. Federalism means equal representation for its Units (states or provinces), as well as equality for its voting population (i.e. individuals entitled to vote). This means two houses: a house of the people (most often called the House) elected from roughly equal-sized constituencies (not precisely equal in actual practice because both population and physical-size are taken into account); and a house of the states/provinces (most often called the Senate) elected with equal representation from each state or province. This is the model in the US, Australia, Mexico – and, in fact, most federal countries in the world. Canada is an anomaly because Senate representation is neither equal among provinces nor elected. To simply abolish the Senate and go with one chamber will entrench the most populous parts of Canada with power forever! You can be sure that this will inflame spearatism in a way that nothing has yet done. We are a federal country for a reason (sheer size is part of that). What we need is not the abolition of the Senate, but its reform to make it truly a house that represents the units that make up the federal country of Canada – namely, the provinces.”
Don’t abolish it, reform it and make senators do what they’re supposed to.