THE SENATE SCANDAL
In Canada, the Senate is an appointed body who receive their appointments from the Prime Minister without debate and who serve in the Upper Chamber until they die or turn 75 (whihcever comes first) or voluntarily retire and, provided they have served at least 6 years, retire with a full pension. The senate is often called the Chamber of Sober Second Thought because all bills passed by the Lower House, the House of Commons (who are all elected by the people) has to be approved by the Senate. The leaders of the majority in the House of Commons is the Prime Minister and he wants to be sure his legislation is not blocked by the Senate. Before the Conservatives came to power, the Senate majority was Liberal and they frustrated the government by adding amendments to bills and sending them back to the House of Commons for approval. I'm sorry we can't get rid of the Senate because it requires 100% ratification by all the provinces - an impossible threshold to achieve with so many regions clinging to their own vested interests.
Retirements and deaths created vacancies in the Senate and Prime Minister Harper has appointed 59 of the current 100 senators since February, 2006. All of the appointments have been Conservatives, although other Prime Ministers have appointed distinguished Canadians from other parties or as Independents in the past. While previous Senate appointments have usually been politicians or lawyers, Harper has chosen Senators from a much broader range that includes Olympic athletes, aboriginal leaders, television news reporters and others who have never served In a political or diplomatic role. I'm sorry that this was done, but I'm not saying its a bad thing - it's just that the Prime Minister has to accept responsibility for rotten tasting food if he chooses bad ingredients to bake it with. I'm sorry we have such a bad example of a Prime Minister who doesn't accept responsibility for what he's done.
Another rule for senators is that they have to have their primary residence in the province they represent. That presented problems for Pamela Wallen, who lived in Toronto, and Patrick Duffy, who lived in Ottawa. There were no vacant seats in Ontario, but there was one in Saskatchewan and another in Prince Edward Island. Wallen had a second home in Saskatchewan and Duffy had a summer home in PEI, so to secure the appointments, they each declared these homes as their "principal residences", and claimed their Ottawa housing expenses as a second home. Senator Patrick Brasseau did the same thing. In spite of the three senators claiming that they checked this arrangement with the Senate and the Prime Minister's Office and were told it was okay, the public outrage at the Senators' double-dipping forced them to repay the money they received to offset these expenses. I'm sorry that these Canadians are such a poor example of typical Canadians who would never consider such duplicity or would ever consider asking for reimbursement for personal living expenses for their first or second home.
Pamela Wallen and Patrick Brasseau were appointed to the Senate on 22-DEC-2008 and Mike Duffy was appointed to the Senate on 26-JAN-2009. Wallen and Duffy were considered superstars, former broadcasters who are accomplished speakers and they became powerful fund-raisers for the Conservative party jetting to cities all across Canada to Conservative events. It appears as if some of these travel expenses may have been reimbursed twice - once by the Conservative party and once by the Senate Expense Committee. Wallen has repaid the amounts requested by the Senate, but Duffy had his expenses repaid by Nigel Wright, the Prime Minister Office's Chief of Staff at the time. He was forced to resign when this story came out. I'm sorry this is so confusing, but bear with me, we're almost at the end. Brasseau was a respected aboriginal leader who appears to have been swept up in this mess along with Wallen and Duffy. His repayments are being deducted from his garnisheed Senate salary. I'm sorry we didn't throw them all into a debtor's prison - in Canada we're too polite to have such an institution.
After much political and public debate, all three senators were suspended without pay for 2 years, but they get to keep the title, Senator, and retain all their benefits, including full pensions which they will qualify for in 2 years. In the meantime they are prohibited from visiting their former offices in the senate, cannot communicate with other senators and all of their staff has been fired. They have been effectively exiled from Parliament Hill. I'm sorry we still believe that people found guilty without a trial can still be sanctioned by their peers, but we still want to be sure their medical coverage is okay and that they'll be able to retire in comfort in two years., after all this is just exile from Parliament Hill, not from Ottawa or Canada. No big loss, I say.
While there are still 6 other vacancies in the Senate and there is no danger that the Conservatives will lose majority control with these suspensions it does have the effect of reducing the number of seats in the Senate to 97 until these three either resign or turn 75. I'm sorry that no one else in Canada has realized that this is the solution to abolishing the Senate. Why not just suspend the remaining 97 Senators and not replace them? This may sound far-fetched, but that's exactly how the province of Quebec got rid of it's Senate. The Quebec Senators agreed to vote their positions out of existence provided they receive their salary for the rest of their lives. At the time, the $10,000 annual salary was considered exorbitant and too generous, but look who is laughing now! But before we do this, could I get appointed to the Senate 6 years before this comes into effect? I could use an annual $93,000 pension. I'm sorry we get so caught up in these issues that all anything anyone can do is complain about how nothing can be done when its staring us straight in the face.
I'm sorry if this has not clarified how the political system works in Canada. We barely understand it ourselves, and yet we have to periodically vote for politicians who tell us they will make things better even though they have no idea how to do it, and they never do. And then we have crack-smoking mayors to deal with.
CRACK-SMOKING MAYOR
Our municipal political system is much easier to understand. The Mayor is like a king who gets to control everything, like the police, public transit, public housing and of course all the drug dealers and crack houses. While he / she is paid a salary from the city's budget that mixes property taxes with provincial and federal subsidies, the mayor is only accountable to City Council which is composed of Councillors elected to represents the different districts In a city. But the real power rests in the Mayor's office and his control over the city's civil servants, including the police, and, unless he is convicted of a criminal offense, he cannot be removed from power. He / she does, however, have to run for reelection ever 4 years, and this does require approval from the public who elects or reelects him or her.
Mayor Rob Ford is a popular mayor who appealed to the working class citizens of Toronto. He promised to reduce taxes and get rid of irritants like the vehicle registration tax, and to expand the public transit system - tangible things he was able to accomplish or set in motion. Previous mayors have appeared to be elitist and out of touch with the average citizen so, in spite of the mayor's admission to smoking crack cocaine, his approval ratings have INCREASED. the mayor has a loyal, passionate following who are likely to show up and vote him back into office, whereas the people who are disgusted with his behavior are more likely to feel that politics are corrupt and there are no decent politicians, and so will NOT vote.
Having said all that, I still think Canada is the greatest country in the world to live in. In spite of all the government waste, dishonest and crack-smoking politicians, at least we have careers for such people which remove them from the general population. The alternative would be building more jails to house them, and we know from the experience of other countries that that doesn't work.
We have one of the highest standards of living in the world, free medical care, a rock solid banking system and well-funded public pension systems (although many seniors feel the monthly payments could be more generous) and all of these benefits are available to all Canadians without discrimination. Our multicultural society allows people from many diverse nations to live in harmony side-by-side, and it is evident in public schools and public institutions where these immigrants have been integrated that we have become an open, tolerant and accepting society. Notwithstanding efforts from forces to push us away from these ideals, the vast majority support these ideals and somehow we always seem to find our way back. I'm sorry I can't explain it any better than that. Visit Canada and you will experience it for yourself. But I should suggest avoiding Toronto - you don't want to be caught up in the mayoral drug wars. Visit instead Ottawa where a front-row seat to watch the continuing scandal debate in the House of Commons is free and quite entertaining, and can be followed up by a visit to the Natural History museum where you can see all the other dinosaurs.
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