Senate Reform — The Time Has Come

Today is a great day for the Senate Reform cause. Today we wish Senator Jerry Grafstein a happy 75-th birthday and lots of good time at retirement. His departure leaves yet another Senate seat vacant and, once those 5 vacant seats are filled, the Conservative caucus will finally outnumber the Liberals 51:48. Sure, that's only a plurality, the Conservatives may still need one or two Independents to support them in the key votes (provided all the Liberal and "PC" Senators show up,) but that still makes it a lot easier for them to pass the long awaited Senate Reform bills, than it was just a couple months ago.

One of those bills, S-7, which restricts Senate term to 8 years, has already been on the order paper. Sure, it will have to be reintroduced again, once the Parliament reopens following the prorogation; but this time, it actually has a chance to go beyond the second reading debate. We can even look forward for the Red Chamber to pass the resurrected bill S-7 before the summer recess (although October or November seems to be more likely) and, as long as the Parliament survives all the confidence votes that accompany the start of the new session, Senate term limits could become law of the land sometime next year.

Senate election bill should follow next. Sure, that's still a long way to go - the bill itself wasn't even reintroduced in the Commons during the past session and, once introduced, the Conservative minority will still have to overcome the filibustering of the three opposition parties. However, things may go faster this time. After all, unless Ed Stelmach chooses to break the tradition, Alberta is going to have another (fourth) Senate nominee election this October (along with the scheduled municipal elections). Hopefully, with Alberta's experience clearly showing that citizens can be trusted to elect their Senators, some of the opposition MPs agree to let the bill pass and to make those elections biding on the future Prime Ministers and Governor Generals.

Meanwhile, Alberta is likely to have 3 Senate seats contested this year - as per the number of vacancies to occur before 2016. Among those seats - the one currently held by Bert Brown, the second ever and currently - the only sitting elected Senator. Sure, his mandatory retirement is not until 2013. But Bert Brown will most likely choose to abide by the Alberta's unofficial 6-year term limit and resign within a few weeks of the vote to make way for the newly elected Senate nominee. And, if that happens, then, for the first time in Canadian history, we'll have a directly elected Senator stepping down at the end of his fixed term, to make way for his elected successor.

Whoever takes Bert Brown's seat will become the third directly elected Senator in Canada's history. With the other two likely to join him later - either following the retirement of Tommy Banks and Joyce Fairbairn (scheduled for December 17, 2011 and November 6, 2014 respectively,) or even earlier - should the unelected Senators resign or should Stephen Harper decide to establish a solid majority by appointing 8 additional ("regional") Senators.

So, with the Liberals having lost their dominance over the Red Chamber, we can finally look forward for the first steps towards reforming what has long been the House of Liberal Lords.