Wednesday, December 17, 2008

“Packing” the Senate - academic hyperbole

An article in today’s Post signed by ten constitutional ‘experts’ from Ontario and Quebec law schools criticized Stephen Harper’s plan to fill 18 vacant Senate seats before Christmas. In it they use weasel-worded bafflegab like "illegitimate context", "dangerously close to being unconstitutional" and "in clear violation of the Canadian constitutional ideals of the rule of law and parliamentary democracy".

While it’s obvious that the circumstances are unusual, what’s "illegitimate" about the "context"? OK, so maybe they don’t like the prorogation but it’s not unconstitutional - at worst, in their own over-heated opinions, just "dangerously close" to it. And what is meant by "constitutional ideals"? Where are these "ideals" articulated such that the eggheads can conclude there’s been a "clear violation"?

It comes off like partisan hyperbolic whinging from a bunch of card-carrying-Liberal academics.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, according to those same "constitutional" donkeys, the attempted coup d'état by the coalition of the weasels was perfectly legal and in keeping with the best parliamentary traditions....

A pox on all "experts", most of whom aren't worth the powder to blow to h*ll, let alone listen to with any measure of seriousness.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I haven't seen such political partisanship by a blogger since I read SDA.

There are so many places to start with Harper. First of all, someone should give Harper a copy of the constitution. He clearly is ignorant (or lying) about the legal and constitutional legitimacy of coalitions. Secondly, Harper promised to never appoint senators. PROMISE MADE.PROMISE BROKEN. It is very hard to tell what Harper stands for these days except he will do anything to feed his Liberal hate fetish.

I suppose when Harper stuffs the Senate with Tory cromies he will say that he is princpled but the evil Liberals made him do it.

BTW, is he going to announce his senate trough fest on Christmas eve and hope no one notices?

You must be ashamed to be a CONservative these days. You have my pity.

Anonymous said...

Are these the same university experts that signed a petition supporting Mr. Dion's green shift in the last election?

Anonymous said...

C'mon folks, what did you expect from the looney left. Don't you know that only Liberals are allowed to pack the senate. That's one of the reasons this country is so screwed up.

Anonymous said...

# 2 Anonymous.If your brain wasn't so close to your rear end,it would be your face.Pm Harper doesn't need any lesson's from the likes of you.And you wouldn't call him a liar to his face would you,you cowardly Liberal.He would kick your ass so hard you would end up with 2 pair of lips.What makes any of these guys in university experts.For gods sake have you seen or heard of the idiots they are teaching and letting loose on the Canadian people.# 2 anonymous is one of the geniuses.And don't forget the great genius Dion.Can you imagine a class that was taught by him.Anonymous #2 sounds like one of his pupils.

bert
in ottawa

Anonymous said...

The post is correct, that is the way to describe stacking the senate. It has been done this way for a long time and if their buddies stole power that is one of the first things they would do. But let us consider the quality of the political hacks and their mass appeal before we get too hypocritical. (real conservative)

Marginalized Action Dinosaur said...

"Wow, I haven't seen such political partisanship by a blogger since I read SDA."


LOL try any lefty blogger m-kay,

JR do block the CBCers, eh.

For years in universities they laughed at Joe Clark for being voted out of office with 1500 patronage jobs unfilled.

Funny they are not laughing any more.

JR said...

Thanks for the comments, folks - especially for smacking Anon #2 and saving me the trouble.

Anonymous said...

Actually, democracy and the rule of law have long been recognized as Constitutional principles having full legal force. This has been the case for decades, and is articulated in countless places, for example:

http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1998/1998canlii793/1998canlii793.html