THE OTHER PLACE — Senators are already planning for the dawn of the Poilievre era. A decade after JUSTIN TRUDEAU booted Senate Liberals from his national caucus in a show of opposition to a partisan upper chamber, the Trudeau era heralded in a massive wave of non-partisan appointments — 81 and counting — that fundamentally reshaped the Senate. As a federal election ticks closer, the people who work at Ottawa's old train station are increasingly consumed by questions about how the place will function after a change of government. — Key questions: Who gets to be the opposition? Who wants the job? Does there even need to be an opposition? How will a small band of Conservatives manage the workload? — Answers so far: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Nobody seems certain what will transpire in the case of a PIERRE POILIEVRE election win, though it's on everybody's mind — and there's a buffet of options. "The truth is, we don't know what's going to happen," Sen. MARC GOLD, the government representative in the Senate, tells Playbook. Gold likely won't have a post-election front-row seat. He's set to retire in June 2025: "I'll be watching with a student's eye on this institution that I really care about." — Scuttlebutt watch: Gossip abounds about blue-hued colleagues who could jump to the Conservatives if it means joining a government caucus. Others might prize the profile of opposition leader, were the job up for grabs. "I'm sure there's a lot of quiet conversations going on amongst senators, and senators with themselves, on what their plans would be," says Sen. SCOTT TANNAS, a Harper appointee who now leads the 17-member Canadian Senators Group (more on them later). Here are two of many potential timelines as the Senate reckons with its future. — Scenario 1: Liberals caucus again. The Senate Liberal caucus dissolved in 2019, five years after Trudeau gave them the heave-ho. But if the remaining former big-L senators recruit enough progressives to their cause, they could stake a claim to opposition like they did in the final two years of the Harper government. A new Liberal leader could also proactively welcome senators back into the fold. — Scenario 2: The opposition looks different. Gold recalled conversations earlier in the Trudeau era about a Senate with no government or opposition reps. Those talks landed on the need for both in some form, including a loosely defined office of the representative of the opposition that could be appointed by the House opposition. Those ideas never advanced in any form, and Gold wasn't championing them over the phone with Playbook. But the Senate can organize itself however it wants, he says. DRAMA DU JOUR — Senators have battled for several years over rule changes that reflect the chamber's evolution in the Trudeau years. The vast majority of senators now belong to the Independent Senators Group, the Canadian Senators Group, or the Progressive Senate Group. They aren't affiliated with government or opposition benches — and don't have the same say in running the Senate's affairs. Kinda awkward, since they vastly outnumber Gold's three-member squad of government reps and Sen. DON PLETT's band of 13 Conservatives. Gold moved a motion last week to give those groups more power to participate. For example, only Gold or Plett have veto power over a committee meeting during an extended Senate recess. A new rule would require the support of a majority of Senate leaders. — No way, no how: Only the Conservatives oppose the rule changes. They're convinced that Gold and Trudeau are teaming up to dilute and destroy Senate opposition in the Liberals' latter days in power. Sen. DENISE BATTERS says the new rules would reduce the Tories' share of speaking time during debate, a perversion of the opposition's role in the Westminster system. "They want to create a government-appointed Senate majority, which would trample the rights of the opposition," she tells Playbook. Batters has always refused to accept the independence of Trudeau-appointed senators. Some are past Liberal donors, she says, and all of them were appointed by a Liberal PM. — A rebuttal: Gold rejects Batters' premise. He insists the Prime Minister's Office isn't a puppeteer pulling the strings. Gold's office presented the rule changes to the government, he says — not the other way around. Spoiler alert: Nobody's going to convince anybody to change their minds on this. → Worth noting: Conservatives are an endangered species in the Senate. Their numbers have shrunk from the 65-strong Senate caucus that predated a withering expenses scandal — and scared off then-PM STEPHEN HARPER from filling vacancies after 2013. The current baker's dozen stands to lose three more senators in the next year: VICTOR OH on June 10, Plett the following May, and JUDITH SEIDMAN in September 2025.
| 
Comments
Post a Comment