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Thursday, 19 May 2011
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LIKE IT? CLICK HERE TO READ MOREMarjory LeBreton, the government's leader in the Senate,
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Friday, 10 December 2010
But the real change is that the 300 new lords will be elected by a system of proportional representation:
Crucially, elections to a new senate would take place using proportional representation, the electoral system long favoured by the Lib Dems.
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Monday, 24 May 2010
It seems so, if this Lord is to be believed:
It seems only fair that the Conservatives having almost won the election should have more peers than Labour who thoroughly lost it. But surely that does not require anything like another hundred.
I can think of only three reasons why the Government’s business managers might feel that they need such a large infusion of peers loyal to the Coalition. One is that they do not trust the Lib Dem peers to support the coalition in difficult and perhaps unpopular decisions.
LIKE IT? CLICK HERE TO READ MOREThe second is that they do not trust Conservative peers to vote for measures which were not in the Conservative manifesto, or indeed for all those measures from the Lib Dem manifesto which are now coalition policy.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Here is a summary of the major electoral changes in the coalition agreement:
• Referendum on the Alternative Vote system for general elections
• Fixed-term Parliaments - next election in May 2015
• 55% of MPs required to bring government down in confidence vote
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Friday, 28 August 2009
We know that Prime Minister Harper does not care much for a powerful federal government, and that he views Parliament as a place where federal power is exercised. Unable to win a majority government so far, Harper has set his eyes on winning control of the Senate, and so cementing the power of veto in the hands of his right wing Tory government:
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has laid out his plan to draw even with the Liberals in the Senate.
With his goal the magic number of 50 Conservatives in the Red Chamber, he stacked nine vacancies with partisan nominations yesterday.
Four opposition senators will reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 by January. Assuming that the Tories are still in power then, appointing their replacements would give each of the two dominant parties the same number of seats. The new standings would help the Conservatives ease their agenda through Parliament."
What do these numbers mean?
Just this: Harper is within months of gaining control of the Senate, and thereby of blocking any programs which a future Liberal government (minority or majority) might have.
Will Harper use the power of the Senate to block Liberal programs?
You better believe it.
What can stop him?
Only one thing: his removal as the government of Canada. As long as he is prime minister, he has the power to appoint senators.
And every day that Liberals delay in removing the Tories from power is another day in which Harper can plot to gain control of the upper house.
If Michael Ignatieff does not move heaven and earth to replace the Tories as government, then the Tory veto over future Liberal government programs can rightly be laid at the feet of the Liberal leader. Not the Liberal Party. Not his advisors. Just Michael Ignatieff.
Because it will have happened on his watch, and he could have taken steps to vote the Tory government out of office.
