abolition

Tuesday August 18, 2015

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday August 18, 2015 Ingredients of a populist rebellion simmer in Canada Politicians take heed: Populist rebellions are under way in both the United States and Britain. Canada is not immune. If a backlash against political elites who disrespect voters ever reaches our shores, it will not be pretty. This grey decade has left all developed nations grappling with low growth, high unemployment and way too much debt, personal and governmental. Populist movements have swept through Canada in the past, usually in times of discontent. The Great Depression spawned both the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation on the left and Social Credit on the right. Western anger at Central CanadaÕs indifference spawned the Reform Party in the 1980s. So why has Canada been spared its own Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn? Luck, mostly. The recession in Canada wasnÕt as severe as in the U.S. or Britain. The Conservative government was able to bring the budget back into balance without having to impose much in the way of austerity. More important, while politics in Canada is polarizing between left and right, it does so within a deep consensus on the importance of both horizontal (between regions) and vertical (between classes) redistribution. But Canada is not immune to populist pressure from either the left or right. The Occupy movement, a populist protest from the left, flared in Canadian cities as well as in the United States and overseas. Doug Ford took 34 per cent of the vote in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, despite his brotherÕs outrages. When any governing political elite ignores or belittles a group of voters, it risks a populist backlash. If the Conservatives win the next election, social activists may take direct action against them. If the NDP or Liberals win, and the economy suffers because there is no political will to build an oil pipeline anywhere, expect a populist reaction from the right, especi

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 18, 2015

Ingredients of a populist rebellion simmer in Canada

Politicians take heed: Populist rebellions are under way in both the United States and Britain. Canada is not immune. If a backlash against political elites who disrespect voters ever reaches our shores, it will not be pretty.

This grey decade has left all developed nations grappling with low growth, high unemployment and way too much debt, personal and governmental.

Populist movements have swept through Canada in the past, usually in times of discontent. The Great Depression spawned both the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation on the left and Social Credit on the right. Western anger at Central Canada’s indifference spawned the Reform Party in the 1980s.

So why has Canada been spared its own Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn? Luck, mostly. The recession in Canada wasn’t as severe as in the U.S. or Britain. The Conservative government was able to bring the budget back into balance without having to impose much in the way of austerity.

More important, while politics in Canada is polarizing between left and right, it does so within a deep consensus on the importance of both horizontal (between regions) and vertical (between classes) redistribution.

But Canada is not immune to populist pressure from either the left or right. The Occupy movement, a populist protest from the left, flared in Canadian cities as well as in the United States and overseas. Doug Ford took 34 per cent of the vote in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, despite his brother’s outrages.

When any governing political elite ignores or belittles a group of voters, it risks a populist backlash. If the Conservatives win the next election, social activists may take direct action against them.

If the NDP or Liberals win, and the economy suffers because there is no political will to build an oil pipeline anywhere, expect a populist reaction from the right, especially in the West.

With luck, things will never get as extreme as Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn. But don’t be too certain. Remember Rob Ford. (Source: Globe & Mail)

 

Saturday April 26, 2014

Saturday April 26, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 26, 2014

Supreme Court rejects Harper government proposals for Senate reform

Ottawa cannot act alone to reform the Senate, limit terms or appoint only elected senators, and must have the consent of seven provinces with half the country’s population, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.

Abolition of the Senate altogether can only be done with the unanimous consent of the federal Parliament and all provinces, the country’s top court concluded.

In a landmark defeat for Prime Minister Stephen Harper that could yet set the stage for a referendum by a government frustrated at its failure to unilaterally legislate Senate reform, the high court dismissed nearly every single argument brought before it by federal lawyers.

A referendum is seen by some within the Conservative government as a potential political hammer to pressure reluctant provinces to go along with Senate reform. Maxime Bernier, a Conservative cabinet minister from Quebec, said Friday the court decision means a referendum is the only way to go.

The high court decision was a unanimous 8-0 judgment. In a clear sign of the strong judicial consensus, the 52-page ruling was signed by “The Court” as a whole, not penned by any one judge.

Hours after the ruling Prime Minister Stephen Harper in brief comments at Kitchener said the result is no change to the Senate will happen anytime soon.

“The Supreme Court of Canada essentially said today that for any important Senate reform of any kind, as well as abolition, these are only decisions the provinces can take.

“We know that there is no consensus among the provinces on reform, no consensus on abolition, and no desire of anyone to reopen the constitution and have a bunch of constitutional negotiations. So essentially this is a decision for the status quo, a status quo that is supported by virtually no Canadian.”

“So look, I think that given that the Supreme Court has said we’re essentially stuck with the status quo for the time being and that significant reform and abolition are off the table I think it’s a decision I’m disappointed with but I think it’s a decision that the vast majority of Canadians will be very disappointed with, but obviously we will respect that decision.” (Source: Toronto Star)

 

Friday, May 17, 2013

Friday, May 17, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, May 17, 2013

Senator Mike Duffy’s actions under scrutiny

There was lots of activity around Senator Mike Duffy’s home in Cavendish, P.E.I. today but he wasn’t interested in talking.

The New Democrats have asked the Senate ethics officer to launch a probe into Duffy’s repayment of more than $90,000 in improperly claimed expenses — money that was given to him by Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff.

The senator has become the brunt of many jokes and outright frustration since the news broke that Wright had written Duffy a cheque from his personal account to repay the improperly claimed Senate living expenses.

“The public looks up to these people…and when they’re not displaying behavior that is becoming to that, one has to be disappointed,” says P.E.I. cottage owner Andy Weeks.

“There’s lots of people on P.E.I. that he could have picked as a senator, rather than somebody who only lives here part time,” says Cavendish business manager Rowan Caseley.

Caseley says the personal cheque written by the prime minister’s chief of staff to repay Duffy’s improperly claimed housing expenses doesn’t pass the smell test.

“That’s not like a $10 gift, or a $100 gift,” he says. “Ninety-thousand dollars is a lot of money and anybody that’s given $90,000, I’d have to put it up for suspicion.”

Duffy is one of three senators whose living expenses have come under fire over allegations they were claiming tens of thousands of dollars for accommodations in the Ottawa area under the Senate’s housing allowance rule – intended to compensate those whose primary residences are more than 100 kilometres from the capital. (Source: CTV News)

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Friday, February 15, 2013

Friday, February 15, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, February 15, 2013

Critical mass building to abolish senate

History will eventually tell whether this was the week when public fatigue with the Canadian Senate passed the point of no return. What is certain is that the abolition of the upper house is well on the way to being upgraded from a Plan B dearest to the heart of the NDP to the Plan A of a critical mass in the country’s political class — possibly including Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself.

The latest controversies involving a handful of senators potentially playing loose with the upper house’s honour system and — in the case of Patrick Brazeau, also crossing the line into Criminal Code territory — have once again cast a disreputable shadow on an unloved institution.

The fact that Mike Duffy and Brazeau were hand-picked by the current prime minister to sit in the Senate and happen to be Conservative household names only compounds the damage.

But this week’s developments are just the latest in a series that is turning outright abolition from the path less travelled to the preferred route for dealing with a colonial-era federal institution.

Over the past decade Ontario — under a Liberal government — has added its influential voice to those calling for the abolition of the Senate.

At the same time the proabolition NDP has expanded its reach into Atlantic Canada and Quebec. Despite an influx of New Democrats from the two regions of the country that are said to be most attached to the Senate, there is no indication that the party is under pressure to tone down its senate stance. (Source: Toronto Star)