With Justin Trudeau’s recent appointment of two left-wing activists as Alberta senators, calls for Senate reform have been widely heard. The power of the prime minister to appoint anyone he wants as a senator is clearly being abused by Trudeau. His recent actions demonstrate that his priority is for ideological and party loyalists, not provincial representatives.In this context, calls for Senate reform sound perfectly reasonable; reasonable, that is, if you ignore the last 40 years — yes, 40 years! — of history.Let’s take a brief look at this history. During the conflict between Alberta and Pierre Trudeau over oil pricing in the mid-1970s, Premier Peter Lougheed created a Citizens’ Advisory Committee on the Constitution to make recommendations to the provincial government.One committee member — University of Calgary constitutional law professor Gene Dais — convinced the other committee members that the representation of regional interests in the national government could be improved if the Senate became an elected body with an equal number of senators from each province. As a result, “Senate reform” became a priority for the Alberta government.Subsequently, in 1983 an Alberta Committee for an Elected Senate was created to promote the idea. Ted Byfield invented the term “Triple-E” to summarize the Senate reform proposals, and when people in other western provinces became interested, the committee’s name was changed to the Canadian Committee for a Triple-E Senate.The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party endorsed the Triple-E Senate proposal at a 1984 convention, and in March 1985 the Alberta legislature’s Special Select Committee on Senate Reform called for the government to officially embrace the Triple-E Senate concept.After Don Getty became premier in 1985, he committed his government to support the Triple-E Senate. Indeed, in 1988 he appointed a Senate Reform Task Force to promote the Triple-E Senate concept to the other provinces.Getty’s support for Senate reform led to Alberta holding Canada’s first Senate candidate election in October 1989, which was won by Stan Waters of the Reform Party. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney reluctantly appointed Waters to the Senate.When the Reform Party — with a slogan of “the West wants in” and a commitment to the Triple-E Senate — won 52 seats in the 1993 federal election, it looked like the Triple-E Senate idea was on a roll.But it was not to be.Why not?Because central Canada does not care what reforms Alberta wants for the political system.Despite the best efforts of the Reform Party and others, Senate reform did not materialize in the 1990s.However, after the Reform Party was transformed into the Canadian Alliance, one of the original Reformers, Stephen Harper, became the Canadian Alliance leader. He helped merge the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003 to form the new Conservative Party of Canada. He also became leader of that new party.Then, in 2006, he was elected prime minister. After winning the 2006 election, Harper aggressively pursued Senate reform using the powers at his disposal.His government introduced a Senate reform bill in the Senate in May 2006. Harper personally appeared before the Senate committee studying the bill, demonstrating his genuine 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. This clearly indicated a real commitment to pursuing Senate reform.Besides such legislative efforts, Harper appointed four senators from Alberta who had been elected in Alberta’s Senate nominee elections of 2004 and 2012, including Bert Brown, perhaps the most prominent Senate reform activist in the country.However, 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.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, essentially putting an end to Senate reform in 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 Stephen Harper couldn’t do it then it can’t be done.Let me repeat that: If Stephen Harper couldn’t do it then it can’t be done.Albertans tried to fix the system but the system couldn’t be fixed. Spending the next few years trying — once again — to reform the Senate would end in failure and frustration, as it always has in the past.But there’s still one major option in Alberta’s constitutional toolkit — a referendum on independence. This option would allow Albertans themselves to decide the future of their province.Make no mistake, independence — not Senate reform — will deliver Alberta from our currently unbearable situation.
With Justin Trudeau’s recent appointment of two left-wing activists as Alberta senators, calls for Senate reform have been widely heard. The power of the prime minister to appoint anyone he wants as a senator is clearly being abused by Trudeau. His recent actions demonstrate that his priority is for ideological and party loyalists, not provincial representatives.In this context, calls for Senate reform sound perfectly reasonable; reasonable, that is, if you ignore the last 40 years — yes, 40 years! — of history.Let’s take a brief look at this history. During the conflict between Alberta and Pierre Trudeau over oil pricing in the mid-1970s, Premier Peter Lougheed created a Citizens’ Advisory Committee on the Constitution to make recommendations to the provincial government.One committee member — University of Calgary constitutional law professor Gene Dais — convinced the other committee members that the representation of regional interests in the national government could be improved if the Senate became an elected body with an equal number of senators from each province. As a result, “Senate reform” became a priority for the Alberta government.Subsequently, in 1983 an Alberta Committee for an Elected Senate was created to promote the idea. Ted Byfield invented the term “Triple-E” to summarize the Senate reform proposals, and when people in other western provinces became interested, the committee’s name was changed to the Canadian Committee for a Triple-E Senate.The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party endorsed the Triple-E Senate proposal at a 1984 convention, and in March 1985 the Alberta legislature’s Special Select Committee on Senate Reform called for the government to officially embrace the Triple-E Senate concept.After Don Getty became premier in 1985, he committed his government to support the Triple-E Senate. Indeed, in 1988 he appointed a Senate Reform Task Force to promote the Triple-E Senate concept to the other provinces.Getty’s support for Senate reform led to Alberta holding Canada’s first Senate candidate election in October 1989, which was won by Stan Waters of the Reform Party. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney reluctantly appointed Waters to the Senate.When the Reform Party — with a slogan of “the West wants in” and a commitment to the Triple-E Senate — won 52 seats in the 1993 federal election, it looked like the Triple-E Senate idea was on a roll.But it was not to be.Why not?Because central Canada does not care what reforms Alberta wants for the political system.Despite the best efforts of the Reform Party and others, Senate reform did not materialize in the 1990s.However, after the Reform Party was transformed into the Canadian Alliance, one of the original Reformers, Stephen Harper, became the Canadian Alliance leader. He helped merge the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003 to form the new Conservative Party of Canada. He also became leader of that new party.Then, in 2006, he was elected prime minister. After winning the 2006 election, Harper aggressively pursued Senate reform using the powers at his disposal.His government introduced a Senate reform bill in the Senate in May 2006. Harper personally appeared before the Senate committee studying the bill, demonstrating his genuine 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. This clearly indicated a real commitment to pursuing Senate reform.Besides such legislative efforts, Harper appointed four senators from Alberta who had been elected in Alberta’s Senate nominee elections of 2004 and 2012, including Bert Brown, perhaps the most prominent Senate reform activist in the country.However, 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.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, essentially putting an end to Senate reform in 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 Stephen Harper couldn’t do it then it can’t be done.Let me repeat that: If Stephen Harper couldn’t do it then it can’t be done.Albertans tried to fix the system but the system couldn’t be fixed. Spending the next few years trying — once again — to reform the Senate would end in failure and frustration, as it always has in the past.But there’s still one major option in Alberta’s constitutional toolkit — a referendum on independence. This option would allow Albertans themselves to decide the future of their province.Make no mistake, independence — not Senate reform — will deliver Alberta from our currently unbearable situation.
