New method for choosing senators may perpetuate elitist system, MP fears

NDP MP David Christopherson says he is worried the new way of selecting senators will end up perpetuating an elitist system.

Thestar.com
Feb. 4, 2016
By Joanna Smith

New Democrat MP David Christopherson says he’s worried the new way of selecting senators will end up perpetuating an elitist system that makes it harder for ordinary Canadians to get into politics.

“I know there are lots of lawyers and doctors and that’s good, but I would like somebody in there who knows what it’s like to get up every day and get their fingernails dirty for a living,” Christopherson (Hamilton Centre) said Thursday during a meeting of the Commons standing committee on procedure and House affairs.

The witness Christopherson was grilling was Huguette Labelle, chair of the new independent advisory board tasked with recommending non-partisan candidates to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fill 22 vacancies in the Senate.

The first phase of the unprecedented appointments process will see the advisory board consult a wide variety of organizations to come up with 25 names, from which Trudeau will fill the first five vacancies - two each in Ontario and Manitoba and one in Quebec.

All candidates for this first phase must be nominated by these organizations through a website, which is what had Christopherson concerned about the ability of the process to recommend anyone beyond the usual suspects.

“How do we avoid the continuation of the view that the Senate is full of elites, because they’re all connected to somebody?” asked Christopherson, who mentioned several times that he had only a ninth-grade education when he entered politics and that people like him might be overlooked in a process relying upon the recommendations of institutions.

“How on earth can we possibly end up with a Senate under that process that reflects the will of the Canadian people?” said Christopherson, whose party has long championed the abolition of the Senate.

“I think that will be what people witness eventually. I hope that our work will demonstrate that we can recommend (the) kind of diverse individuals the Senate needs to have,” said Labelle.

“I hope you’re right, because there is no way to get rid of them if you’re wrong,” Christopherson said.

Emmett Macfarlane, a political scientist at the University of Waterloo who was asked by the Liberal government to help design the new appointments process during the transition phase, shared different concerns.

He said the fact that this first phase requires those being nominated to submit an application runs counter to the spirit of his proposal.

“I guess part of the challenge of getting good senators is that the people we want to be senators, many of them, maybe not all of them, will be working in their career, perhaps in a late stage of their career, and will need to be drawn into public service, rather than people who are explicitly seeking it out,” Macfarlane said Thursday.

“I don’t want to be too glib, but to me, in my mind, anyone who would actually apply to be a senator, that’s almost a disqualifying principle, if I were the one making the final call,” he said.

Macfarlane believes the advisory board can avoid the scenario Christopherson put forward by making sure they consult with all sorts of organizations.

“God forbid everyone in the Senate have PhD. That would be a disaster and I say that as someone with a PhD,” said Macfarlane, noting non-profit organizations are connected to all sorts of people with a variety of experiences.

“I think a consultation process is capable of identifying a diverse array of Canadians,” he said.