Prime Minister Stephen Harper would seek a constitutional amendment to give the House of Commons primacy over any future elected Senate, says Mr. Harper’s point-person on reform in the Senate.
Senator Bert Brown, who was elected in Alberta before Mr. Harper appointed him in 2007, said the Prime Minister would consider asking Parliament and the provinces for a constitutionally entrenched mechanism that would prevent gridlock or even a Senate-sparked government shutdown. The mechanism would only be necessary if Mr. Harper gets his way and nudges Canada toward a mostly or entirely elected Senate.
“I think he’s [open to a single amendment] because that’s what we’ve discussed right from the time I was appointed Senator,” Mr. Brown said Tuesday, five days after the Harper government asked the Supreme Court of Canada to define what is required to reform or abolish the red chamber.
The Conservative’s latest bill on Senate reform proposes nine-year term limits and prescribes a process in which provinces and territories could elect senators who would then be considered for appointment. Should the Supreme Court decide the government can pass those aspects of reform without an amendment — which requires the approval of the Senate, the House and seven provinces representing 50% of the population — Mr. Harper hopes provinces will increasingly follow Alberta’s lead, Mr. Brown said.
The Senator has crisscrossed the country at the Prime Minister’s behest in a bid to shore up support for elections, and so far Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and British Columbia have said they are on board. Mr. Brown said Premier Robert Ghiz told him in a recent letter that P.E.I. would set up a task force to examine the issue.
Mr. Harper has made a point of avoiding any need to open the Constitution, and while he might want to abolish the Senate altogether, he knows it would be a tremendous fight because Quebec and the smaller provinces would never dissolve a body whose balance of power works to their benefit.
But Mr. Brown said the Prime Minister would, in fact, be willing to ask for an amendment to create an override mechanism that protects the House — one so narrowly defined that it shields Ottawa from the myriad provincial demands that sunk the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords a generation ago.
A few years back, Mr. Brown discussed all this with the Prime Minister for four hours at a Calgary steakhouse, where Mr. Harper specifically asked the Senator to find a way to enshrine the House’s supremacy in the face of a newly legitimate, empowered and elected Senate.
Mr. Brown said he has since presented the Prime Minister with a mechanism dubbed the Elton-McCormick Override — named for two Lethbridge political scientists — and that Mr. Harper read the plan with interest. The override says if senators want to thwart a House-approved bill, they can do so, but only if the move has the support of a majority of senators in each of seven provinces representing 50% of the population (much like the requirement to amend the constitution itself).
If successful, the House could either “fix [the bill] or forget it,” Mr. Brown explained. The Senate could not, however, force a non-confidence vote or even cause prolonged gridlock because the override only gives senators one month or 12 sitting days to muster the votes for a veto.
An advisor to Mr. Brown said MPs, Senators and all the premiers have seen the Elton-McCormick Override plan.
In an email Tuesday, a spokesperson for B.C. Premier Christy Clark said “having a Senate with democratic legitimacy makes sense” and that the government, which is considering a private member’s bill calling for Senate elections, will “continue to do the work necessary to prepare the way for senate nominee elections in British Columbia.”
Mr. Brown said he also hopes to meet with incoming premier Kathleen Wynne sometime in the coming months to discuss Ontario’s prospects for Senate elections.