Conservative Party Chief Fundraiser And Other Party Hacks And Flacks To Be Appointed To Senate
OTTAWA — The Conservatives are expected to appoint their chief fundraiser to the Senate as part of a spate of appointments Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make as early as Monday.
Sources told The Globe and Mail that Mr. Harper planned to pick Irving Gerstein, a long-time fundraiser for the Conservatives and the Progressive Conservative Party that preceded them. Mr. Harper is also seriously considering the appointment of former interim party leader John Reynolds.
There are 18 vacancies in the 105-seat Senate, many of which have existed since Mr. Harper became Prime Minister three years ago. There are 58 Liberal senators, 20 Conservatives, three Progressive Conservatives and six independents.
Globe & Mail
UPDATE:
And just to prove how the Conservatives try to play 'both sides of the street' on the Senate issue, they put this out there ... 'Tories threaten to abolish Senate'
OTTAWA -- If the Conservative government can't get its planned reforms to the Canadian Senate passed as soon as possible it will simply move to abolish the chamber altogether, says Steven Fletcher, the minister of state for democratic reform.
Fletcher says he will introduce legislation to introduce eight-year term limits for senators, and a process to elect senators, as soon as the budget and economic issues are dealt with and issued a warning to any parliamentarians planning to block the reforms.
"If we don't get those reforms in a reasonable amount of time we will look to abolish it," said Fletcher.
Cartoon by kind permission of
Graeme MacKay at mackaycartoons.net
If the Conservative régime were serious about reforming or abolishing the Senate, Harper would seek the support from the provincial legislative assemblies. Any threat by one of Harper's borgish ministers is just empty rhetoric. It's as good as honouring four-year term fixed election dates.
Honestly, I don't think the über-democratic party of Senate reform will ever reform the Senate under Harper--be he have a minority or majority régime.
Posted by
Skinny Dipper |
11:13 am, December 20, 2008
From the same article:
"There are so many vacancies the Senate is essentially not able to function," said Fletcher.
Didn't Canadians vote in the 1992 referendum that included Senate reform with only 62 seats? That's less than the current 87 members of the Senate that supposedly can't function.
Posted by
Skinny Dipper |
11:24 am, December 20, 2008
Skinny Dipper is right.
What part of "requires constitutional change of 7 provinces representing 50% of the population" do Conservatives not freaking understand?
Posted by
Mike |
3:58 pm, December 20, 2008