Harper Issues Ultimatum To Liberal-Dominated Senate

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Wants to get things done, but unelected, Liberal-partisan-dominated Senate won't let him.

Story here. h/t: NationalNewswatch.com

We cannot have unelected partisan extremists preventing the duly elected government and Parliament from having their duly-approved new legislation implemented. But that's exactly what the unelected, Liberal-dominated Senate of Canada has been doing ever since the Conservatives replaced the Liberals in the last election.

Remember when the Liberals ruled? Remember that the Senate, Liberal-dominated back then as well as today, pretty much automatically rubber-stamped whatever legislation the Liberal-dominated Parliament brought to its attention? No matter how extreme, no matter how bizarre the legislation the Liberals passed in Parliament, the Senate didn't really do any of the "sober second thinking" it claims it must do today! What a bunch of assholes!

So now...

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is prepared to ask the Governor General to pull the plug on the minority Parliament and trigger a spring election if the Senate doesn't pass the Harper government's violent-crime bill by March 1.

The House of Commons began debate Monday on a government motion calling on the Senate to pass the Tackling Violent Crime Act by the start of next month. If the Commons passes the motion and the Senate does not comply, the prime minister could ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to dissolve Parliament, said a Harper spokeswoman.

(...)

It is the strongest statement yet that Mr. Harper is willing to force an election if the Senate does not yield to his government's agenda. Last week, Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan suggested more obliquely that approaching the Governor General is an option.

(...)

The Commons is expected to approve the crime motion as early as tonight.

After that, Senate, it's your move. So move, or else.

And, should the Conservatives get a majority in the next election, it'll be easier to reform the Senate, make it elected, limit Senators' terms, make it equitable across the Federation, and effective.

Ironically, it's in the Senate's best interests to do as the Prime Minister tells it today. Should they refuse, well, that's going against their interests.

In the future, and it can't be done quickly enough, the Senate must be reformed very seriously... or be abolished, as, clearly, if we cannot reform it, we cannot have it the way it is today, so...