Steven Harper and the Senate

Much has been made by the punditocracy, and even Premiere Brad Wall of Sask has opined the 3 recent appointments of  Senators, who lost in the HOC election, is bad for democracy and problematic.  It is most interesting to see the swelled heads of Andrew Coyne of MacLeans, Dan Gardner, of the Ottawa Citizen, and Scott Stinson of the National Post express faux outrage over Mr. Harper's temerity.  The political sky is falling and Democracy, as we know it in Canada, is in danger -  almost as much as AGW is going to bake we Canadians into stiff pretzels instead of frozen noodles.

Here is a recent Tweet of Coyne on the size of government. He predicts with the certainty of a man who voted Liberal expecting a different outcome than what occurred with a majority CPC government.

"@acoyne acoyne  May 18/2011 People on CBC keep talking about the coming "austerity". Folks, there is not going to be any austerity. At most they will slow the growth..."

Would you bet he is right?

Someone tell Wall (and the Punditocracy) the PM requires a majority in the Senate to ensure change. Paul Martin, in his short time in power, made 13 appointments to the body.

The current breakdown does not ensure Mr. Harper will get the reform he desires.  Including his 3 recent appointees  those listed as Conservative number 55, Liberals 45, Independent 2 and PC 2.  Mulroney still has 15 appointees who could nominally be considered PC ( i.e. potentially Red Tory rather than Conservative) but may not wish to limit their terms or be elected.

Normally the Senate has 105 Seats but to ensure passage of reform legislation Harper can appoint up to 13 more Senators above the 105.  He is playing a numbers game and will want to ensure he has enough votes before putting the changes through.

If I were him I'd be doing the same thing. He is playing a long game and has 4 years to get his numbers up.  Between now and 2014 there will be at least 23 retirements due to age so time is on his side.  Those who are critical fail to understand his strategic focus even after 5 years as PM.

In the long game no one will remember this in a year, let alone 4.