Mr. Speaker, on Thursday of last week I rose to ask the Deputy Prime Minister about two recent appointments to the Senate and
to offer a suggestion about what she, the Prime Minister and the Liberal government might do about the Senate in the future.
My remarks and the focus of my question were prompted by the government appointments earlier in the week of long-time Liberals, Ottawa's Jean-Robert Gauthier and New Brunswick's John Bryden. While I indicated that both may very well be very worthy appointments, I wanted to suggest that there is much more to this issue than the worthiness of the candidates.
Canadians are looking for a change in the Senate itself. Canadians are looking for the government to take the necessary steps to either abolish the Senate or elect its members so that Parliament's second Chamber is accountable to the people of the country and not just to the Prime Minister who made the individual appointments.
As long as the Prime Minister continues to appoint senators, the same old charge of patronage can be made. For Canadians the government of the day is seen to be just like all those who have gone before it. Once again the Prime Minister has seen fit to ignore the calls for Senate reform and instead has done as Mulroney did before him. He appointed his friends and supporters to the upper house.
The Prime Minister is missing a great opportunity to correct years of abuse. Something different must be done as quickly as possible and only the Prime Minister is in a position to act today.
About two years ago I attended a constitutional conference in Calgary at which ordinary individuals as well as experts from across western Canada participated in a discussion about the Senate and the future of democracy. I listened to a lot of debate about an elected Senate and even about proportional representation as the basis for the election, not only of the Senate but of the House of Commons as well.
I say this to indicate that I am already aware that there is a great wealth of knowledge around the country that can be called on by any Prime Minister who really wants to do something to address Canadians' mounting distrust of governments, patronage and the Senate.
The existing appointed and unaccountable Senate must be abolished. I can add that I also support replacing it with an elected Senate which is given more specific responsibilities and is accountable primarily to the regions. I realize that any reform of the Senate as we know it would require a constitutional change, accepted not only by this House and the provinces, but also by members of the Senate. We saw in the Charlottetown accord how difficult this is going to be. Therefore, there must be more than one way to abolish the Senate. I call on the Liberals across the way to take a bold, new initiative.
In addition, Canadians are concerned about the country's mounting deficit and the federal government's desire to cut the deficit by cutting spending. It seems unfortunate the Liberals are telling Canadians that our nation can no longer afford social programs, but we can afford to continue to fill the Senate with political hacks.
Many jobs will be lost in the public service this year because of cutbacks. Many ordinary Canadians will lose their jobs and others will not find jobs because existing ones in the public service will not be filled when they become vacant. The Liberals should do to the Senate what it is doing to the public service. When a vacancy occurs in the Senate, the Prime Minister should resist the political temptation to fill it and instead leave the position vacant. Over time, by attrition, the Senate will slowly abolish itself. It is certainly a better idea than continuing to appoint the party faithful who have no mandate or commitment to reforming the system.
I ask the Liberal government to be bold and reform the Senate through attrition of its members.