Wednesday, November 17, 2010

On foreseeable results

By the way, in case anybody is wondering how we got to the point where the Cons would feel entitled to shred a bill that had passed among Canada's democratically-elected representatives, let's keep in mind that the issue has been building for some time. And rather than working on establishing a custom that the Senate would generally respect the will of the Commons while they had the ability to actually exert pressure on the Cons, the Libs chose instead to bow to Con pressure on government bills while doing precious little to get opposition legislation passed in return.

Given how the Cons have mostly been able to limit the flow of legislation even while in the minority in the Senate, it shouldn't come as much surprise that they're now using their dominant position to claim an upper-chamber veto over all bills. And unfortunately, the Cons' view that the will of elected representatives doesn't matter if there's some formal power that can be exerted against it will be even more of a problem following the next change in government.

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