The House could learn a thing or two about Sober Second Thought

It’s impossible for me to pick a side in the escalating battle over the Senate. The government, championing eight nine year term limits with elections (constitutional challenges be damned) countered by the Official Opposition’s Hammer of Thor solution of outright abolition.

After the introduction of the Senate Reform bill in the House, the NDP didn’t waste anytime with Pat Martin’s oh-so-clever plot to pull $59.5 million in Senate expenditures out of the Main Estimates to be voted on separately. The goal? Shame the government by having them vote to give the vile Senate money. Yeah, that’ll work: Cause if there’s one emotion Tony Clement is capable of feeling, it’s shame.

As far as strategies go, this ranks right up there with Spray Her with the Hose.

Martin’s latest pitch exemplifies the reluctance for either side to engage with the public on any meaningful level re: Senate reform. Like all of the proposals thus far, by its very design Martin’s motion undermines the ability of the Senate to fulfill its purpose to “study and review all legislation passed by the House of Commons or initiated in the Senate” and serve as that much toted Chamber of Sober Second Thought.

You can view the Main Estimates here (Senate is on page 267). Aside from the $59.5 million threatened to be held up, the Senate also receives $34.5 million in Statutory Forecasts, a guaranteed sum. The line items in the 2011-12 Estimates are a little vague, but if we look back at 2010-11, Senate salaries and allowances come in at $26.6 Million while program expenditures sit at $59.4 Million, the same amount that the NDP wants to nix from their budget. So if Pat Martin gets his way Senators will continue to get paid but they won’t have the ability to actually do their job of researching and deliberating on matters before them.

Pat Martin is a smart man and he knows this (at least, I hope he does) and his is an exercise in pandering. The NDP won the hard fought battle for Official Opposition status under the banner of Making Parliament Work™ and fixing a Broken Ottawa. The results thus far have been underwhelming, with enough unanimous consent in the House this past week that bursts of Kumbaya echoes through its halls. In the NDP binary narrative, the Senate is an evil, a symbol of the old and broken Parliament that must be vanquished, common sense be damned. So long as the battle continues, they have the appearance of doing something and by choosing the Senate they’ve ensured a very lengthy campaign.

There is no legislative victory to be had by either side of this debate. These Senate proposals we’re hearing are nothing more than a Parliamentary aspartame: a palatable substitute for meaningful debate that carries no weight and no guilt but ultimately gives you cancer. And then you die.

Great Moments in Shutting the Fuck Up

The audio recording proves it: this was no Fuddle-Duddle.

Earlier today, at a meeting held with Women’s Equality Rights Groups, Martin-appointed Tory Senator Nancy Ruth had this advice on pushing the government to reconsider its Anti-Choice stance at the upcoming G8 meeting: Shut the fuck up.

To be fair, the good Senator didn’t seem to be arguing against common sense, but rather in the name of “good” strategy. It is, after all, the government that pulls the purse strings and non-profit groups that rely on its funding would do well to remember that. Or so the logic goes.

Say what you will, Ruth’s advice is actually in keeping with a long held tradition in Canada of STFUing. After all, we wouldn’t be the nation we are today if we had people running about trying to stir-up the melting mosaic pot. Here’s some examples:

Heeding MacDonald's advice, Riel went back to Montreal and became a world class snooker champion as french and metis rights were forgotten

Laurier's stern wisdom convinced Murphy et al to drop that suffrage nonsense, get back into the kitchen and make him a sandwich.

Fatherly figure Borden convinced striking Winnipegers to give up their strike, which is why today you can employ child miners and pay them in opium roaches.

No stranger to dispensing advice, Borden once again issued the STFU edict, sparing Canadians the uncomfortableness of passing dark-skinned people on the street.