Justin Trudeau boots all senators from Liberal caucus

Cynic
A Trudeau is a Trudeau, is a Trudeau.
His father was a egomaniacal navel gazing SOB.
Justin is a nothing but a delusional pretty boy trying to ride on Daddy's coattails.
The lefty's might love his hair, but that's all that he has up there.

Outstanding! And it works on a few levels.

Stephen Harper may be boring, but I will take economic growth, a balanced budget and healthy economy over "pizazz"

Trudeau and Harper could not be more different. Trudeau is all sizzle and no steak. Harper is just the steak....

Ok, weird analogy all of a sudden there at the end,but you know what I mean.

Too bad Harper didn't do the same with the 59 Conservative appointees (a record number in Canadian history) he installed in the Senate before the scandal broke about Duffy.

Maybe then there wouldn't have been all those questions regarding the PMO's involvement with Duffy (et al) which has plagued the Harper government for almost a year now. With the impending report on all senators due out shortly, does anyone truly believe it is only going to shine a light on Liberal shenanigans? Yes, it likely will hit some Liberal senators, but the majority are Conservatives. I'm actually looking forward to a good Red Wedding (Game of Thrones reference) in the Red Chamber. It's time the senate truly was an arm's length chamber of second thought and making all within it Independents would actually be a good first step.

I like the idea of a senate committee tasked (with) appointing new members to fill empty chairs too. If the partisanship appointments could somehow no longer be an issue, perhaps unbiased individuals who are more interested good governance and parliamentary procedure would eventually replace the current practice of inserting party hacks in the hope of ramming through crappy legislation hidden within ponderous omnibus bills.

One can only hope.

masqua
Too bad Harper didn't do the same with the 59 Conservative appointees (a record number in Canadian history) he installed in the Senate before the scandal broke about Duffy.

edit on 1/2/14 by masqua because: grmmr

The NDP,CBC and Liberals are working full time to come up with dirt against the Conservative government and ALL they can find is a few politicians cheated on their expenses? GASP ! Say it ain't so!!

By finding something as trivial and ubiquitous as corrupt political expense accounts, they have proven to Canadians that the Conservatives are doing an excellent job and this all they can find to complain about.

(Given the Billion dollar scandals perpetrated by the Liberal party itself, not a few members, I find it particularily galling that they have the balls to call anyone else out. Real scandals DESTROYED the Liberal party and much of the country with it. )

Leonidas

The NDP,CBC and Liberals are working full time to come up with dirt against the Conservative government and ALL they can find is a few politicians cheated on their expenses? GASP ! Say it ain't so!!

One name is all I need as a counterpoint... Max Harb.

As to digging up and flinging dirt, it's been the main focus of all three political parties, not the least of which is the Harper Conservatives with their slanderous attack ads. In my opinion, past Liberal governments were just as bad. I remember voting for Joe Clark back in the PreCambrian Era because during the election, he said he would raise gas taxes. He lost that to the Liberals who buried him over it and, Lo, they raised the gas tax shortly after being elected.

Dirty politics is dirty.

But let's keep this conversation about the senate itself, shall we? The NDP and CBC have no dogs in that hunt... only Conservatives and the new Independents.

masqua

Leonidas

The NDP,CBC and Liberals are working full time to come up with dirt against the Conservative government and ALL they can find is a few politicians cheated on their expenses? GASP ! Say it ain't so!!

One name is all I need as a counterpoint... Max Harb.

As to digging up and flinging dirt, it's been the main focus of all three political parties, not the least of which is the Harper Conservatives with their slanderous attack ads. In my opinion, past Liberal governments were just as bad. I remember voting for Joe Clark back in the PreCambrian Era because during the election, he said he would raise gas taxes. He lost that to the Liberals who buried him over it and, Lo, they raised the gas tax shortly after being elected.

Dirty politics is dirty.

But let's keep this conversation about the senate itself, shall we? The NDP and CBC have no dogs in that hunt... only Conservatives and the new Independents.

edit on 1/2/14 by masqua because: pncttn

The NDP's "dog" in the Senate hunt is that they have no dog in the hunt!

They want to abolish the Senate for the very practical reason that they have no control over it. And since the CBC is the willing voice to anyone and everyone that has any axe to grind with Conservatives, they are part of the story as well.

Did you happen to listen to Rex Murphy's "Cross Country Check-up" last weekend? It was solely on this topic.

Canadians are so loathe to open the constitution there is very little that can be done to change it. The West has been trying to enact a Triple E senate that Central Canada will have nothing to do with.

The Senate is a huge waste of tax dollars and it accomplishes very little. Since most the country wont allow elected senators, and opening the constitution is viewed as unleashing the Four-horsemen, there is little practically that can be done.

Leonidas

The NDP's "dog" in the Senate hunt is that they have no dog in the hunt!

Exactly so.

They want to abolish the Senate for the very practical reason that they have no control over it. And since the CBC is the willing voice to anyone and everyone that has any axe to grind with Conservatives, they are part of the story as well.

The CBC depends on disbursements from the government. CTV has just as much coverage of political stupidity as the CBC, so your argument falls flat on that score. One could always concentrate on Sun Media...

Did you happen to listen to Rex Murphy's "Cross Country Check-up" last weekend? It was solely on this topic.

Sorry. Missed it. I can't stand his intellectual elitism and turn the channel whenever his petulant face hits the screen.

Canadians are so loathe to open the constitution there is very little that can be done to change it. The West has been trying to enact a Triple E senate that Central Canada will have nothing to do with.

The Canada West Foundation has, for 40 years, been a proponent for a Triple E senate.

30-Jan-2014

Calgary, Alta. – The move by the Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to reduce partisanship in the federal Senate is the first concrete step in decades that moves the Red Chamber closer to being the institution of sober second thought its defenders claim it is, Canada West Foundation President and CEO Dylan Jones said today.mis

“Trudeau’s surprisingly principled and decisive step takes the country beyond debate to action,” said Jones. “We can leave it to the strategists to agonize over the political wisdom of Trudeau’s move, but it is at least refreshing to see something on the Senate file that actually has some logic to it.”

Efforts by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to push for a so-called triple-E Senate – equal, elected and effective – have been frustrated by the prospect of reopening constitutional talks. As a result, the only movement has been towards appointing elected representatives. Meanwhile, the institution’s seat distribution remains grossly unequal. For example, New Brunswick, with a population of just more than 750,000, has 10 seats, while B.C., with a population of more than 4.5 million, has just six.
cwf.ca...

The Senate is a huge waste of tax dollars and it accomplishes very little. Since most the country wont allow elected senators, and opening the constitution is viewed as unleashing the Four-horsemen, there is little practically that can be done.

As a counterpoint, the Harper Government has spent more on the Jobs Grant advertising campaign than the Upper Chamber cost us.

The CBC depends on disbursements from the government. CTV has just as much coverage of political stupidity as the CBC, so your argument falls flat on that score. One could always concentrate on Sun Media...

The difference being that the CBC is a taxpayer funded broadcaster and has an obligation to be fair (even if they ignore that obligation) , which the private broadcasters dont have to follow. The CBC is leftist enclave of elitist eastern establishment. Sun media is responsible to the CRTC and it's shareholders, period so they can say what they want..

Did you happen to listen to Rex Murphy's "Cross Country Check-up" last weekend? It was solely on this topic?

His opinion was predictable, it was the opinions of Canadians that made it interesing.

reply to post by Leonidas


Can we focus on the senate issue, please, and not on the various talking heads in the media? They're not elected officials and also don't have any dogs in the Red Chamber Wedding. I couldn't care less what Evan Solomon, Don Martin or Ezra Levant think and hint at. I'm perfectly capable of discerning BS from truth and I don't doubt you are too.

The Trudeau initiative of making liberal senators independents alone is the topic I'd rather explore and discuss. What do you think of the Canada West Foundation statement I supplied above?

Trudeau's proposal is a cynical move on the Liberal's part because they are living with the reality of their appointees' age and influence dwindling and the fact that the Liberals are looking at years on the outside of power looking in.

I live in the West and have seen the attempts time and time again to do something to make the Senate more accountable, regardless of other people's opinion on the matter, his proposal will accomplish none of the goals of an effective senate. I my opinion.

reply to post by Leonidas


In the immediate future, nothing really changes... this is true.

If the Conservative government would take the same step, it would make all sitting senators independents and removes the current problematic appointments by governments in power a thing of the past if the senate itself takes on that task via a committee.

That way, future appointees for senate positions might be separated from partisan politics. At least, that's my hope. Sure beats years of Constitutional wrangling and there's no telling what completely unrelated issues might crop up when it is opened up. Feel like debating Quebec Independence again? I don't.

ETA: I've lived in the west too, just so you know that I'm not 'married' to a region.

masqua
reply to post by Leonidas

 

In the immediate future, nothing really changes... this is true.

If the Conservative government would take the same step, it would make all sitting senators independents and removes the current problematic appointments by governments in power a thing of the past if the senate itself takes on that task via a committee.

That way, future appointees for senate positions might be separated from partisan politics. At least, that's my hope. Sure beats years of Constitutional wrangling and there's no telling what completely unrelated issues might crop up when it is opened up. Feel like debating Quebec Independence again? I don't.

ETA: I've lived in the west too, just so you know that I'm not 'married' to a region.

edit on 1/2/14 by masqua because: (no reason given)

We need to be able to open the Constitution a crack without throwing all the messy stuff we have decided to live with as-is. Maybe a pre-negotiated agenda.

reply to post by masqua


I would say most people here are probably capable, the problem is, people like us seem to be a tiny minority. Most people in the western world are willingly ignorant. This day in age, information is just a few keystrokes away, but it's only people like us who bother. Most people just take the talking heads they like at their word, people like us are always searching for answers.

I can't count how many idiots in my province saying that the recent protests were just "selfish indians trying to get themselves even more handouts." That's just one example of where I had to restrain myself from knocking an ignorant moron on their ass due to stupidity lol.

reply to post by Leonidas


I completely agree with you, but...

Unfortunately, any changes regarding the Senate will need to be debated and agreed to by all provinces. When Quebec enters that fray, you can be sure they will be pulling the little red separation wagon into it. That's really unfortunate.

reply to post by TKDRL


We, here on ATS, regardless of where our political affiliations lie, are used to having a civil debate on issues. Out there in the slanted world of MSM, no such distinction exists. More than anything, most are puppets whose strings are being pulled by invisible corporate or political 'masters'. Nowhere is that more visible than the panels of 'pundits' they produce for debates. It doesn't matter if it's Katy O'Malley, Rex Murphy, Greg Weston, John Ivison or Gerry Kaplan... before they open their mouths to pontificate on the Senate issues, you can almost predict what they're going to say. That is just the way it is.

We're left to parse the BS from pearls of wisdom. Unfortunately, most of those pearls wind up scattered in front of swine.

masqua
reply to post by Leonidas

 

When Quebec enters that fray, you can be sure they will be pulling the little red separation wagon into it. That's really unfortunate.

Exactly, it is the rest of Canada's fault in a way. Everytime they make some political noise, we rush to fill their wagon with goodies. Not that I blame them at all, it has been very successful for them, why stop?

The tragedy is that it makes us less likely to pursue geniune change if it means opening up the constitution. Because regardless what the debate was before you throw it to the Provinces, it will become about Quebec and the rest gets lost in the noise.

Ironically, an effective Senate could help manage that problem in the future. (if we can get PEI to give up one seat per ten cows is a differnt issue altogether)

As much as I despise and disagree with Trudeau, I sincerely hate Stephen Harper and think his policies are a disaster for Canada. The fact is Canada should have a strong economy in today's world with all our resources so I give him zero credit for any prosperity us Canadians currently hold. We should be doing even better but egomaniacs like Harper and Trudeau only know how to really serve their money masters.

Our Food standards are 20 years behind, our environment is being polluted and Canadians are being ripped off in many areas, mostly oil revenue. We are getting plain hosed by party politics and I really think our society's level or technological progression is showing how flawed our complete system is.