Mike Duffy on Senate reform, speaking on CBC's The House, June 25, 2011:"If you get a process whereby a Prime Minister by convention respects the democratic rules set out in this legislation, and only appoints people who have been elected, it'll be very hard in the future for any other Prime Minister to go back to the stand-in-the-shower-and-consider-who-you-want-to-appoint method of democracy, which is what we have now."
Maybe this statement has more to do with Mike Duffy's fantasy of his own Senate appointment process than with how the Prime Minister actually select senators.
Duffy gave more insights into the current process as he explained the value of a nine year senate term.
"The nice thing about a nine-year non-renewable term is that if you gain election, you do have independence because you're not going to run for office again, you're not trying to curry the favour of the Prime Minister to get some sort of event for yourself in the future, you can be brutally independent in fighting for what's right, both for your province and for the public, and I think that is a very good mix."
A nine-year non-renewable term also ensures that the senators are beyond the reach of their electorate. Pretty nice gig in theory: get elected, do whatever you want for nine years, receive pension and don't look back.
No comments:
Post a Comment