Canadians are fed up with the Senate expenses mess.
But what can we do about it? Prime Minister Stephen Harper has wiped his hands of the affair, saying the Senate is an independent body that should be policing its own members. This represents the kind of laissez faire attitude that got us into the situation we are in today.
It’s ridiculous that no headway has been made on either abolishing this unelected body or making it more democratic. This posh group, whose members fly business class on the public dime, is supposed to be an agency of sober second thought.
But it has been revealed to be a tiresome anachronism, a ridiculous hold-over from Confederation that can’t be eliminated because its members serve a purpose for their political masters and because any real reforms would require all provinces to start singing from the same song book.
So we are stuck with this group and, as a result, there is a kind of hubris in Ottawa, where senators are feudal lords with the minions in the finance department tugging their forelocks in deference every time an expense is questioned.
Most commentators say the lack of clearcut rules and understanding of what senators do is behind this spending imbroglio.
That’s all well and good but most Canadians would say the job description is simple: Do parliamentary business, be available for your provincial constituents — not just party bagmen — and focus on government work, don’t shill for other non-profit agencies, regardless of the cause.
Instead, senators appear to be doing what they want, when they want, with apparent little oversight. This has led us to the hardly surprising situation where a few are up on charges (although they will probably get off because of the environment in which they worked) and another 30 have apparently filed expenses flagged as inappropriate by the auditor general.
Unfortunately, we haven’t known the full extent of this situation until the report will be made public (that was to happen today).
If nothing can be done to reform or abolish the Senate, its members have really no incentive to make substantive changes to the way they do business.
