Jay Currie

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called the plan “completely irresponsible.” He said changing the Senate would require re-opening the Constitution and he panned the idea of having two elected chambers of Parliament.

“The very moment the two chambers would be elected, they would have (the) same behaviour, a greater likelihood that you would have a stalemate without some kind of dispute mechanism,” he told reporters.

“It will give the Senate more dysfunctionality and they’ll be able to monkey with the business of the House of Commons even more then they have up to now,” NDP Leader Jack Layton told reporters.

“We don’t want to start a new constitutional round,” added Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe. ctv

What is amazing about the Opposition leaders is how they can predictably object to any initiative of Harper’s on whatever specious grounds come to mind.

I note that not one of them pointed out that the question of election to the Senate should only be considered in tandem with a consideration of the current disproportionality as between the West and the East in terms of Senate seats. That would actually be intelligent. Instead we have Dion claiming that the PM’s willingness to be guided by a popular vote requires the Constitution to be re-opened. Of course it does not and Dion knows it. And so does Duceppe but he will not admit it.

Smilin’ Jack recognizes that elected Senators will be rather more willing to take on the Commons. Which is, after all, the point of having a second chamber.

Harper is setting up the election. An elected Senate is likely worth four or five seats in the West and a continued lock on the seats he already has. It is a non-starter back East but he is not going to make a lot of noise about it back East. What he is doing is putting all three Opposition leaders in the position where they are opposing extending democracy. Not a place a smart Opposition leader wants to be.