Triple-E Senate - Further Developments

Further Developments

Main article: Senate of Canada > Senate reform See also: Domestic policy of the Harper government > Senate reform

The notion of a Triple-E Senate remained alive in the decades following the Charlottetown Accord, though little substantial action was takes to implement the principles; Prime Minister Paul Martin mused on the topic, but said "piecemeal" Senate reform would create an unworkable combination of appointed and elected senators.

While the Conservative Party of Canada has endorsed an elected Senate, it has rejected the Triple-E label. However, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on 10 September 2007, requested Governor General Michaëlle Jean to appoint the aforementioned Bert Brown – by then winner of two Alberta senatorial elections – to the Senate.

Then, on December 11, 2008, without any preceding senatorial elections as in the case of Bert Brown, the Toronto Star reported that Harper "plans to fill every empty Senate seat by the end of the year to kill any chance of a Liberal-NDP coalition government filling the vacancies next year." On December 22, 2008, the Globe and Mail reported that "Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed...that he is filling all 18 current vacancies."

The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois both call for the Senate's abolition.

Read more about this topic:  Triple-E Senate

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