All the ways the Senate could be modernized — from televised debates to...
OTTAWA — From TV cameras to making political party affiliation less important, a committee of senators tasked with modernizing Canada’s upper chamber launched recommendations Tuesday that could result...
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Christie Blatchford: New Senate appointments just more of the same
With slavish regard to the late, great Dorothy Parker, the new Canadian senators — 14 of them, thus far, the most recent six announced this week — run the gamut from A to B. In other words, while they...
View ArticleTrudeau accused of stacking Senate with small-l liberals for big-L Liberal...
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being criticized as an apparently progressive-minded group — the Conservative leader in the Senate has dubbed them “elites and bureaucrats” — will fill the Red...
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Senators divided on question of whether they should be part of political parties
OTTAWA — As a modernization committee debates the future of the Senate with no conclusion in sight, the leader of the Senate Liberals argued Wednesday that senators shouldn’t be discouraged from...
View Article‘A victory for fairness’: Senators agree to allow more independents on...
OTTAWA — Senators are moving to make committees more proportional, allowing a growing number of independents take their seats. A motion from the Senate Conservative leader Claude Carignan — backed by...
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Federal government should overhaul pipeline review and approval process:...
OTTAWA – The process for reviewing and approving energy projects in Canada desperately needs an overhaul to help resolve the “pipeline paralysis” currently plaguing the country and to bring more...
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How the Senate changed in 2016 — and what it means for the government’s...
OTTAWA — 2016 was a transformative year for Canada’s Senate, and a revitalized upper chamber will likely exert even more influence on the federal government’s agenda in 2017. Senators of all stripes,...
View ArticlePowerful committee quashes Senators’ attempt to fund Canada 150 medal program
OTTAWA — A group of senators tried to secure Senate money for a Canada 150 medals program Thursday, months after the National Post reported the Liberal government was cancelling a federally-funded...
View ArticleBehind closed doors, Senate committee confronts Don Meredith over his sexual...
Sen. Don Meredith is facing a committee of his peers this morning as the Senate inches closer to deciding whether he should keep his seat in the upper chamber. The Toronto-area senator is speaking with...
View ArticleTrudeau’s Senate representative slams ‘obstructionist’ Conservative delay...
OTTAWA — In a scathing new document, the government’s representative in the Senate slams Conservatives for “zealously” delaying government bills. In the 21-page “discussion paper,” Sen. Peter Harder...
View ArticleTerse email scuffle a sign of infighting amid rising frustrations in...
OTTAWA — With little time remaining to pass government legislation before summer, Independents and Conservatives are clashing in the upper house. Tensions came to a head this weekend with a nonpartisan...
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The Russia probe is not over: The interim FBI director is determined to...
WASHINGTON — On the spot as the FBI’s new acting director, Andrew McCabe assured senators Thursday he will alert them to any effort to interfere with the investigation into Russia’s election meddling...
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By resigning, disgraced senator Don Meredith gets a regular pension, rather...
The Liberal government is blaming its Conservative predecessor for the fact Don Meredith will be able to collect an annual pension now that the disgraced Ontario senator has formally resigned his seat...
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Senator booted from Conservative caucus for accepting Trudeau dinner invitation
OTTAWA — He ate breakfast Tuesday morning as a Conservative senator and got ready for dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the same evening as an independent. After Sen. Stephen Greene, a Nova...
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Tory Senate leader defends ousting senator from caucus over dinner with Trudeau
OTTAWA — The Tories’ Senate leader says Conservatives’ decisions in the upper house — including the ousting of Sen. Stephen Greene from caucus this week — are based on staying accountable to the six...
View ArticleSenators, government in another time-sensitive showdown — this time over the...
OTTAWA — Senators are once again defiantly challenging the Trudeau government on legislation that’s facing a court-imposed time crunch. The government is trying to make senators feel like “Chicken...
View ArticleIncreasingly activist Senate plans amendments to Liberal budget bill — again
In another sign of the increasingly activist role the Senate is playing in Parliament, the government’s key budget legislation is being targeted for amendments by the upper chamber for the second...
View ArticleAndrew Coyne: Our unelected Senate has no business rewriting federal budgets
At time of writing, Bill C-44, legislation enacting the federal budget, had yet to come to a vote in the House of Commons. Its passage was nevertheless assured: a formality, in fact, for any government...
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Lawmakers demand new strategy for 16-year war in Afghanistan if Pentagon...
WASHINGTON — Senators sharply criticized Pentagon leaders Tuesday for not completing a new strategy for the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, as Defence Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged that “the enemy...
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Plaintiffs in landmark Indian Act court case side with Senate, seek deadline...
OTTAWA — The government is rushing an Indian Act update through the Commons because of a court-mandated July 3 deadline, but it isn’t asking for an extension despite the court’s apparent openness to...
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