Atlantic Canada and the Canadian Senate

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=37506&sc=98


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2007/06/14/cabinet-react.html

Now that Liberal Robert Ghiz has been sworn in as PEI Premier and now that Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald has come out against the federal budget, there are no longer any pro-Harper Premiers in Atlantic Canada. I am glad that this is the case. What a spectacle this Atlantic Accord debacle has been. One of the debacle’s casualties, Bill Casey, recently did something abnormal in the House of Commons. I’m not exactly sure what happened the other day when Bill Casey initially voted for Liberal MP John Cannis’s private members’ motion on income trusts, but after the vote was held he stood up and announced that he missed the whip so much he voted the wrong way and that he meant to vote nay. How is that possible? It was so obvious that when Mr. Casey had stood up it was when the yea votes were being counted. Did he change his mind after initially voting or what happened? Somehow the House accepted his change of vote even though I thought that to change one’s vote required unanimous consent of the House. Does this mean that he personally supports the government’s income trust policy?


Even though the Green Party of PEI did relatively poorly in the recent PEI election, I recall federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May saying she was encouraged by the PEI election results. I believe the highest vote that any Green candidate received in the PEI election was 8%. Sure one could say it was a breakthrough that the Greens finished ahead of the New Democrats in popular vote, but that is likely because the Greens ran more candidates than the New Democrats. Had the New Democrats fielded a full slate and the Greens fielded the same partial slate that they did field, the New Democrats would likely have polled ahead of the Greens. Even if the Greens and New Democrats had both fielded a full slate of candidates, the New Democrats would likely have finished ahead of the Greens. I consider it likely that the Greens only finished third because they had more candidates than the New Democrats. Green Party leader Sharon Labchuk has challenged the appointment of the new Environment Minister George Webster because, as quoted in the PEI Guardian “ ‘Environment Minister George Webster is one of P.E.I.’s larger potato producers and represents the global industrialized system of agriculture that’s poisoned our air, contaminated our water and mined our soil,’ said Labchuk.
‘His appointment is a slap in the face to every Islander with nitrate-contaminated water and to every parent who fears for their children’s health and safety in the upcoming spray season.’ ” My goodness, Islanders have been farming potatoes for generations. Why does she just assume that there are lots of pesticides involved, including in the case of the Minister’s potato farming? After all, Mr. Webster has won environment awards according to the same article. Comments from the Green leader mentioned in an online CBC article are even more disturbing. This is what the article paraphrased Ms. Labchuk as saying: “Labchuk said P.E.I. needs someone who is going to work to dismantle the potato industry, not protect it. She said a better choice would have been somebody who doesn't come from a farming background.” Dismantle the potato industry, the lifeblood of PEI? Come on now. If everyone knew that this was the PEI Green Party’s position, I doubt any Green candidate would have received 2% letalone 8%.

On another topic, I’m tired of Liberal Senators defying the directives of Liberal leader Stephane Dion. There is this whole thing about Senators defying Dion and defeating the budget. It’s likely that the Senate will at least delay the passing of the Bill into the summer and make the Senate sit into the summer. However I am a bit disturbed at the Liberal leader’s inability to make Liberal Senators follow his directives. I get the feeling that it is often this way. Senators often refuse to follow the directives of their Commons leader. What else would explain how a Tory budget was defeated by the Senate in 1993 when the PCs had a majority in the Senate. Clearly some Senators then too defied their Commons leader, a seemingly common occurance. Personally I have no problem with Senators from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan voting against the budget. But I think Dion should maybe threaten to punush any Liberal Senator outside those provinces if they vote against the budget. I don’t mean to be unfair to Senators based on what their home province is, but it is for the good of the Liberal Party that we let the budget pass and let the Atlantic Accord debacle be judged in the court of public opinion. I just feel that giving Senators from those 3 provinces an exemption from the directive to vote for the budget is a reasoable compromise to this emotional topic. I am going to assume that Conservative Senators from those 3 provinces will be like their Commons counterparts from those 3 provinces and vote for the budget. If so, the budget can still easily pass with the support of the other Liberal Senators plus the Conservative Senators. No budget amendments are possible because those would presumably be rejected in the Commons. If certain Senators move amendments at committee, hopefully those amendments can be defeated by the full Senate. The budget bill needs to be passed as quickly as possible to avoid a political crisis that could rub off badly on the Liberals. I have no problem with some delay on the budget Bill, but I want to see the Bill passed by the end of June. Barring that, the Senate needs to sit in July to get the Bill passed. I know that this is a bad budget, but that has to play out in the court of public opinion without any negative effect occuring on the Liberals. The only way to ensure this is to pass the bad budget bill.