Story here.
ht: National Newswatch
Good. I agree with the ultimatum.
The Senate is unelected. It is unaccountable. It is partisan-Liberal-dominated and, as such, will not cooperate with the Conservative government, will prevent legislation which is approved by the elected Parliament from being passed. Senators are allowed to serve a potentially very long time, as they don't have to retire until they're 75. How whacked is that?
Ontario and Quebec, with their Liberal governments currently, are opposed to Senate reform and will not cooperate with any effort to effect reform, like limiting Senators' terms to eight years and electing them as opposed to appointing them. Sure, they cite the Constitution as saying we can't simply just make this happen, but, hey, since when do Leftists believe in the Constitution, anyway? They've been effectively rewriting it via judicial activism via judges appointed by Leftist political leaders for decades! They dismiss the Constitution as a "living document", as if there was such a thing, and as if the Constitution itself says it's a "living document"... it's a Big Lie, an urban legend, a myth... like "Palestine", like manmade climate change, like Obama being some kind of Messiah who will save America and the world... hell, Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are actually more real and less mythical than is the Big Lie of the Constitution (and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms) being a "living document" and therefore rewritable at the whim of corrupt, criminal "judges" who do the bidding of the Hard Left's radically extreme social-reengineering agenda!
Let me be sarcastic, therefore... hey, let's have a Harper-appointed judge declare that the Constitution somehow, mysteriously, and only in said judge's special, godlike understanding and interpretation, actually says that we can reform the Senate or abolish it... just like that... and that it's somehow a "human right" to reform/abolish the Senate... sound absurd? Well, what about the absurd rulings of Leftist-appointed Leftist judges practicing, not their job, but rather illegal, unconstitutional social-reengineering while fraudulently, immorally, unethically wearing the sacred robe and sitting on the bench holding the little wooden hammer?
Screw the two largest provinces whose interest is served at the expense of Canada as a whole... if we can get rid of the Senate and get on with the business of building Canada, then let's.
I also applaud the Prime Minister's de-facto admission that reform is probably never going to happen anyway by appointing, as is his perfect right to do so, eighteen Conservatives to the Senate as a start towards changing the Liberal-heaviness of it.
There's no doubt that a Liberal-dominated Senate is bad for Canada. No matter what the Liberals passed in Parliament, the Liberal-dominated Senate always rubber stamped the legislation like obedient dogs; so much for "sober second thought". But enter a Conservative government, and the Senate suddenly grinds to a halt, being partisan and ideological and preventing important stuff from happening.
It's clear to me that if it's impossible to reform the Senate due to ideological extremism on the part of asshats like Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest, then let's get rid of it altogether and start to make the country work properly!
Sometimes radicalism such as abolishing old institutions that no longer work (and that actually cause harm) is inevitably necessary to make things work. And whoever would condemn this kind of radicalism ought to look into the mirror for their wanting Canada to effectively be ruled, not by elected officials, but rather by unelected, unaccountable elites called "Senators".
There's no reason why the Canadian People must be ruled by these Senators, who don't answer to the People at all, but rather to the politicians who appointed them, even after they're no longer in power, like the ruthless, merciless Jean Chretien, who still, to this day, exercises considerable influence over the Liberal Party (including the loyal Liberal Senators he appointed as PM) as if he's somehow entitled to continue to indirectly oppress and tyrannize Canadians from his comfy golf clubhouse or wherever he sloths it away these days while issuing marching oders to Liberal footsoldiers... Oh, that reminds me... isn't new Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff a Paul Martin loyalist? Oh, ha-ha-ha... let's sit back and watch the show, as we enjoyed it during Martin's brief stint in 24 Sussex... that Chretien, he never misses an opportunity to screw his enemies, even those in his own party.
In the meantime, it's imperative to end the Liberal dominance of the Senate. So go ahead, Mr. Harper, and appoint Conservatives to the Senate to ensure that those Liberal partisan asskissers no longer are able to serve the agenda of their Liberal masters who aren't in power anymore.
At least the United States elects its Senators. Who, other than Leftists who hate democracy, like the Liberals, NDP and Bloc, who recently tried to go over the heads of Canadian voters and overthrow the government they just very recently elected with a stronger-than-before mandate, could be opposed to electing Senators?
Oh, yes... we now have no doubt that Liberals hate democracy. They don't want to elect Senators, don't want referenda on controversial social-reengineering issues (because they know they'd most likely lose them), and they, as they demonstrated just very recently, want to steal executive power without an election so as to impose whatever they want without a democratic mandate and without any sort of legitimacy. Therefore, I'd be very happy to witness the abolition of the Liberal Party of Canada, as I was pleased to see the Soviet Union fall, the Berlin Wall fall, Saddam and the Taliban be removed from power, etc... And, please, take the Senate with you... you Liberals can go join your Supreme Overlord, Moe Strong, in exile in Communist China... the Commies will be happy to see y'all!
Oh, did I just rant? Well, I'm allowed... besides, it's fun to say stuff about Liberals that just has to be said, and which isn't said enough!
