Most Albertans are not happy with the current treatment of their province within Canada, but they don’t want Alberta to leave Canada..They think changes can be made — such as constitutional reforms — that will improve Alberta’s situation. With proper institutional reform, the Canadian political system would provide mechanisms to ensure the province could fend off hostile federal government policies such as current plans to phase out fossil fuels..Albertans who think this way have forgotten their history..Within the lifetimes of most Western Standard readers, significant efforts were made to reform Canada’s political institutions to give the West a real voice within the federal government. These efforts were thwarted by central Canadian politicians..At least since the early 1980s, the main goal of Western calls for institutional reform has been the Triple-E Senate, that is, an Elected senate, with an Equal number of senators from each province, having Effective powers..Indeed, towards the end of the 1980s, the Triple-E Senate became the centrepiece of the Reform Party’s plan to fulfill its slogan, “the West wants in.”.The Reform Party itself never formed government. But one of the leading members of the Reform Party — Stephen Harper — became prime minister after the Reform Party transformed into the Canadian Alliance, which subsequently merged with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to become the new Conservative Party of Canada..After winning the 2006 election, Harper aggressively pursued Senate reform using the powers at his disposal..This is outlined in a 2015 McGill Law Journal article by Adam Dodek entitled, “The Politics of the Senate Reform Reference: Fidelity, Frustration, and Federal Unilateralism.” As Dodek puts it, “From the moment it took office in February 2006, the Harper Government indicated its intention to act on its promise of Senate reform.”.It first acted on that promise by introducing a Senate reform bill in the Senate in May 2006. Harper personally appeared before the Senate committee studying the bill, demonstrating his intense commitment to this issue. .In December 2006, his government introduced a Senate reform bill into the House of Commons. Had it passed, this bill would have authorized “consultative elections” whereby voters could select nominees whose names would be submitted to the prime minister to consider when filling Senate seats..These bills died, but Senate reform legislation was frequently reintroduced while Harper was in power..During his first seven years in office, three such bills were introduced into the Senate and five into the House of Commons. This clearly indicated a genuine commitment to pursuing Senate reform..Besides such legislative efforts, Dodek notes that “in July 2007, the Prime Minister appointed Bert Brown to the Senate; Brown had attracted national attention in the early 1980s by plowing ‘Triple E Senate or Else’ into his neighbour’s field..Brown was also the only person to run in each of Alberta’s three Senate nominees’ elections in 1989, 1998 and 2004, winning a spot as a ‘Senator-in-waiting’ in both 1998 and 2004.” .In May 2012, the Québec government initiated a reference case on one of the Senate reform bills, asking its own Court of Appeal to rule on the constitutionality of “consultative elections” and Harper’s plan to impose nine-year term limits on Senators..In response, Harper’s government initiated its own reference case to the Supreme Court of Canada so that it could frame the questions the court would consider..As Dodek explains, “the decision to bring the reference can be seen as both a reaction to the Government of Québec and as a proactive strike to get ahead of the Québec Court of Appeal decision.”.To make a long story short, the Supreme Court decided that Senate reform of the kind desired by Harper would require a constitutional amendment. This brought his government’s Senate reform agenda to a screeching halt..The Senate reference decision essentially put an end to Senate reform in Canada..Dodek writes that one way to understand this whole episode is to see a man dedicated to Senate reform finding “that once he became Prime Minister his attempts at Senate reform were thwarted at every step of the way: first by the opposition and the Senate itself, next by some within his own caucus, by the provincial premiers, and finally by the courts, notably the Supreme Court of Canada.”.So there you have it..Stephen Harper — a man who was committed to constitutional reform to benefit the West — became prime minister and over a period of years used every tool at his disposal to reform the Senate. But he could not prevail in the face of intense opposition from central Canada..If Harper couldn’t do it, then it can’t be done. .Albertans must realize that their best and brightest went to Ottawa to fix the system but the system couldn’t be fixed. Spending the next few years trying to reform Canada’s constitution would end in failure and frustration, as it always has in the past. No one will be able to top Harper’s efforts..The good news is that there is one option left..Alberta can hold a referendum on independence. A successful referendum will release Alberta from the straightjacket of Confederation and put the province on a path towards prosperity and freedom. This is the only viable way to a better future.
