Diminished Hopes for Senate Reform

Despite reassurances that senate reform will proceed - even with Michael Fortier's recent appointment to the upper house - the whole notion of an elected senate is now in jeopardy. The Conservatives were proposing to do this without amending the constitution. Instead, the idea was to establish a process through Elections Canada that would elect a senator, who would then be appointed by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, still, would have no obligation to appoint the senator-elect, but ideally would do so in respect for the new precedent, a new tradition. Stephen Harper was supposed to set this precedent, but with Fortier's appointment, he has instantly and permanently nullified any of his future efforts to reach this end.

It is very possible that by the time Harper's mandate is over, all the current senate vacancies filled by elected officials, including the seat to be vacated by Fortier himself by the next general election. The senatorial election may be a process firmly ingrained in the Elections Canada organization. All this may be accomplished and Harper will still have achieved nothing. The only precedent that will have been set is that even the would-be father of senate reform had no qualms about abusing his power to appoint for the sake of political expediency. Why would anyone expect any subsequent Prime Minister behave any differently?