The Liberal government's representative in the upper house is warning that the election of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer as prime minister would risk reverting the Senate to a body dominated by "a practice of partisanship that has not served Canada well."
And Ontario Sen. Peter Harder is touting legislative changes — which could take effect as soon as this spring — to cement the place of Independents appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the event the Conservatives win the next election and begin the process of unravelling some of the Liberal-backed reforms.
Scheer has said he would be inclined to appoint party members to fill the benches of the Red Chamber, in accordance with the long tradition of the upper house, and promised to pick "Conservative senators who would help implement a Conservative vision for Canada."
It concerns me only in the sense that were he to fulfil that promise, he would be undermining the achievements of a less partisan, more independent chamber and revert to a practice of partisanship that has not served Canada well," Harder, Trudeau's point man in the Senate, said in a year-end interview with CBC News.
"And, by the way, he'd face a majority of Independent senators that would not share that vision."
Ballot question?
Under the former Conservative government, as court documents in the Mike Duffy trial showed, some of the decisions in the Red Chamber were carried out at the direction of political staff in the Prime Minister's Office — a level of interference many felt undermined the chamber's independence and minimized its role as a complimentary chamber of sober second thought.
Even today, Harder said, Tory senators are subjected to demands from the party leadership in the House of Commons, while their Liberal and Independent counterparts have cut formal party ties.
"Conservative party senators continue to sit in the national caucus of the Conservative Party, led by Mr. Scheer, and he has made public statements of direction. He was directing his caucus to oppose the cannabis legislation through every fashion possible. And they did," Harder said, adding that Scheer's plans for the Senate should be "part of the debate" in the upcoming election.
"I believe Canadians would rather have [an independent Senate] than a partisan echo chamber of the partisan chamber, the House of Commons."
'This myth of non-partisanship'
Conservative Saskatchewan Sen. Denise Batters said Tory senators are honest about their political leanings and don't hide behind the "Independent" label that Trudeau-appointed senators have embraced.
She pointed to a CBC News analysis from 2017 that documented voting patterns that were largely in lockstep with Harder and the Liberal government.
"I think Sen. Harder, as always, is under this myth of non-partisanship. The Senate is a partisan political institution and has been for 150 years. It has always been less partisan than the House of Commons, but it is not nonpartisan. And I think we have served Canada well," Batters said in an interview.
She said the Conservative caucus takes offence at the government's insistence that the new picks are "merit-based."
"Partisanship is not a dirty word. There are people in our caucus who have partisan ties, yes, but they've also done a lot of great things in their lives."