Okay Canada Senate - Prove you have balls!

The Stephen Harper government's omnibus crime bill is making its final stop in the Commons this week before heading off to the Senate. 


  I recall having a conversation with two political reporters at a Progressive Bloggers event in the East Block on Parliament Hill.  Our host was the well respected Progressive Conservative, Senator Elaine McCoy.  I should also note that I believe she is the last Senator standing in the Senate as a Progressive Conservative, steadily defying Stephen Harper and his Reform minded colleagues. 


We had a big discussion on the value of the Senate. I was for throwing it out and two parliamentary reporters were all for keeping it. They agreed it was a little undemocratic, yet okay in a democracy and far superior to the American model of elected Senators. 


They cited the example of Parliament putting the boots to abortion and the Senate stopping it. We can thank the Senate for one maybe four or five occasions when it did not follow its political masters in the House Of Commons and abortion remained legal. 


So here is a major test.  Every person in Canada pretty much knows that crime is way down. Almost every person in Canada knows someone that smokes dope. The new crime bill brings massive change and costs.  We will see many more Canadians in jail. We will see the cost of keeping them there sky-rocket.  Almost every progressive voice in this country says this is wrong.

I have a question for all you good people that support the Senate. Will the chamber of so called 'sober second thought' stop the omnibus crime bill as it is?

I'm willing to reconsider supporting a senate of some kind if the Senate we have today steps up to the plate and tosses this legislation right back at Harper.  Its time my two political buddies on Parliament Hill start proving the Senate has value.  Its time the MSM start calling on the Senate to full fill its mandate.