Trudeau fires his Liberal Senators

Trudeau to his senators: You're fired!

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau fired all his senators Wednesday morning.  And in doing so, the third party in the House of Commons effectively resigned its position as the official Opposition in the Senate. ...

... "These independent senators will no longer be part of the parliamentary and operational team of the Liberal Party of Canada," Trudeau later told reporters. "As far as political operatives, these senators will no longer be Liberal organizers, fundraisers, activists in any form."

... At first, these senators were stunned. But after an hour or two of talking it over, the gang Trudeau "fired" came out of their closed-door meeting to tell reporters that, henceforth, they would call themselves the Senate Liberal Caucus. And they will, er, act like Liberals. Later, when the Senate got going, this group insisted they would carry on as the official Opposition in the Senate. ...

Even Liberal attack-dog and Trudeau fan-boy, Warren Kinsella, thinks it's a dumb idea. On Brian Lilley's Byline, Kinsella called it an "absurd stunt".  Lilley also pointed out that Trudeau's gambit was contrary to the Liberal's own constitution which defines the Liberal caucus as including Liberal appointees to the Senate.

It sounds like the Liberals are a very confused bunch.  Obviously Liberal Senators had no say in Trudeau's grand "decision" to eject them.

Here's another decent summary of events:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper pounced on the apparent contradiction after Trudeau asked in the House of Commons whether the Conservatives would be following his party’s lead.

“I gather the change announced by the leader today is that unelected Liberal senators will become unelected senators who happen to be Liberal,” Harper said.

The prime minister also cited [Liberal Senate leader] Cowan’s comment about not expecting much to change, saying: “That has to be the understatement of the year.”

 This could be fun!