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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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 Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:30 pm Post subject: Harper Promises to Reform, Make Senate Democratic... |
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OTTAWA � Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that Canada�s New Government will introduce a bill in the House of Commons today to establish a national process for consulting Canadians on their preferences for Senate appointments. The bill will see voters choose their preferred Senate candidates to represent their provinces or territories.
�This bill will make the Senate more democratic and more accountable,� said Prime Minister Harper in a speech to his caucus. �For the first time, it will let the Prime Minister give Canadians a say in who represents them in the Upper House.�
The Senate Appointment Consultations Act represents another step in a comprehensive plan to make government more accountable. The Prime Minister noted that the bill was being introduced the day after the government�s Federal Accountability Act received royal assent. Canada�s New Government has also introduced legislation to limit Senators� terms to eight years.
Details about the new bill will be released when it is introduced in the House of Commons later today. |
http://www.conservative.ca/EN/1091/63106 |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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Canadian senate reform? Allow me to laugh as heartily as I always do when every new government comes into power and proposes it:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA! |
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fiveeagles
Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: Vancouver
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Why couldn't it happen? |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Because it is good for Alberta and bad for Quebec. The twin pills of public policy death for my silly country. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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| BJWD wrote: |
| Because it is good for Alberta and bad for Quebec. The twin pills of public policy death for my silly country. |
Harper has the problem of having a minority government. So, he has to kiss many babies including NDP and Bloc Quebecois ones. I am not really a supporter of Harper, but I think he is better than some people on the Left think he is. I don't mind him in a minority government. |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| To do it he has to open up the constitution and then get every legislature, thats 13, to agree to it. The rednecks in Alberta, the Vegans in Vancouver, the welfare bums in Manitoba, the drunks in PEI, I mean it will never happen. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:46 am Post subject: |
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| OH, you are right. And this redneck from Alberta sees this issue as one of a long, long, long line of reasons that the whole Canadian project ought to be rejected and the various provinces peruse their own futures. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:17 am Post subject: |
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| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| To do it he has to open up the constitution and then get every legislature, thats 13, to agree to it. The rednecks in Alberta, the Vegans in Vancouver, the welfare bums in Manitoba, the drunks in PEI, I mean it will never happen. |
No he doesn't, that's why he proposed it the way he did. It's the closest you can come to senate reform _without_ touching the constitution. |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:40 am Post subject: |
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| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| To do it he has to open up the constitution and then get every legislature, thats 13, to agree to it. The rednecks in Alberta, the Vegans in Vancouver, the welfare bums in Manitoba, the drunks in PEI, I mean it will never happen. |
Welfare bums? Now you're gotting personal man.
Where the hell are you from?
Anyways, what does the Senate do exactly? |
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PEIGUY
Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Location: Omokgyo
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:37 am Post subject: |
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| endo wrote: |
| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| To do it he has to open up the constitution and then get every legislature, thats 13, to agree to it. The rednecks in Alberta, the Vegans in Vancouver, the welfare bums in Manitoba, the drunks in PEI, I mean it will never happen. |
Welfare bums? Now you're gotting personal man.
Where the hell are you from?
Anyways, what does the Senate do exactly? |
They're supposed to be the "Sober Second thought" so in other words after a bill has passed through 3 readings in the House of Commons the Senate does the exact same process for most bills. They add or change things (more often now that the Conservatives are in power) and send it along to the GG who gives it Royal Assent.They don't have any real legislative power per say but they can't reject a bill like the US Senate. They can just delay it in committee hearings etc.. So basically.. they don't do a whole hell of a lot.. Last time they were in the news was the Defense Committee wanting commanders pulled from the field in Afghanistan to go and talk to them in the UAE. I'm in favour of changing it or getting rid of it. But, I dont' think it'll happen, like Octavius Said you have to get every province to agree to it (good luck with Quebec). I still find it funny that PEI has 4 Senators (it's in the constitution that we can't have less than our number of MP's which we also have 4 of) Islanders wouldn't stand for something being taken from them and given to a province that actually needs them.. |
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Ilsanman
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:21 am Post subject: yes |
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Are you trying to tell me there are more welfare bums in Manitoba than Saskatchewan? I beg to differ.
| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| To do it he has to open up the constitution and then get every legislature, thats 13, to agree to it. The rednecks in Alberta, the Vegans in Vancouver, the welfare bums in Manitoba, the drunks in PEI, I mean it will never happen. |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| Octavius Hive clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:39 am Post subject: |
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| endo wrote: |
| Octavius Hi[t]e clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. |
Yes, perhaps. Either that...or he hit a nerve. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:54 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| endo wrote: |
| Octavius Hi[t]e clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. |
Yes, perhaps. Either that...or he hit a nerve. |
No, he just assumed that it would involve a change to the constitution as all senate reforms proposed until now have. Looks like he just didn't look into the proposal deeply enough. Basically what it does is keeps the prime minister's constitutional right to appoint senators but has a referendum that lets the prime minister know which one they want him/her to appoint, and I assume the PM would ignore that at his peril. I think he also is trying to get senators down to 8-year limits instead of the system where senators just stay until they're 75. |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:18 pm Post subject: |
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First off I was just joking about the different areas, I lived in 7 different provinces and territories so I have broad experiences.
As for the senate reform. Yes Harper can make small cosmetic changes like only appointing the senators that the provinces vote for like Alberta has been doing.
However, there is no way that he can change the senate in a serious manner without a constiutional change, period. |
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