#1Dec 11th, 2008
Harper poised to appoint 18 Senators
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is poised to name as many new senators as he can before Christmas, Canwest News Service has learned.
There are 18 vacancies in the 105-seat Senate and Harper will try to fill as many of those slots as quickly as possible in order to put them out of reach of a Liberal-NDP coalition.
The Liberals will continue to hold the majority in the Senate even if Harper fills all 18 vacancies.
Each new senator will be a Conservative and is likely to share the prime minister's views on Senate reform, a senior government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In the last Parliament, the Harper government attempted some reforms, such as introducing eight-year term limits on senators. Currently, a senator remains in office until reaching the age of 75.
Legislation to change the Senate died with the last Parliament.
Harper and the Conservatives believe that the opportunity to reform the Senate will be lost for a generation if a Liberal-NDP coalition fills up the vacancies.
Both the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have called for the Senate's abolition. The Liberals, on the other hand, have often been accused over the years of using Senate appointments as patronage plums.
But appointing senators could also help Harper address some of the regional inequities in his caucus. There is no one in the federal Conservative caucus or cabinet from the city of Montreal, Canada's second-largest urban region. And there are no Conservative MPs or cabinet members from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. There are currently four senate vacancies in Quebec and one from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Senators receive an annual salary of $130,400.
The Liberals hold 58 seats in the Senate and the Conservatives hold 20. There are three senators who call themselves Progressive Conservatives, four who are independent and one senator who represents the Independent New Democratic Party. One other senator, Ontario's Anne Cools, was kicked out of the Conservative caucus after she spoke against the government's 2007 budget. She is listed as a "non-aligned" senator.
Since he took office in early 2006, Harper has filled two vacancies. Shortly after taking office, he made the controversial move of putting Michael Fortier, who had just been the co-chair of successful election campaign, into the Senate. Fortier resigned his Senate seat in September in order to run in the last general election, but did not get elected as an MP. He is not expected to be among those named to the Senate again.
The other appointment was Bert Brown from Alberta. Brown won a "senator-in-waiting" election in Alberta in 2004. The Alberta government of Ralph Klein ran that election partly in an effort to goad then-prime minister Paul Martin to take Senate reform seriously.
Earlier this year, the province of Saskatchewan passed legislation that would allow for elections in that province for senator. Saskatchewan has one vacant Senate seat right now.
But Harper cannot wait for elections in Saskatchewan or any other kind of broad consultative process. Parliament resumes on Jan. 26 with a throne speech, a budget will be tabled on Jan. 27, and both those items will precipitate confidence votes within days. If the government loses a confidence vote and if the Liberal-NDP coalition is still intact, it is likely that Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean will ask newly minted interim Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to form a government.
The new senators would be appointed from across the country. There are four senate vacancies in Quebec; three each from British Columbia and Nova Scotia; two from New Brunswick and Ontario, and there is one senate spot open for each of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, and Saskatchewan.
