• Governance

    Posted on August 5th, 2009

    Written by PPRI

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    Non-Partisan Senators

    Non-Partisan Senators

    There are eight vacancies in the Senate; there will be four more by year’s end. If last December’s appointments to the red chamber are any indication, Harper will likely pick prominent Canadians who will tow the party line when it counts…Instead of shaking our heads are the shortsighted partisanship at play here, those interested in the future of Parliament should give some thought about how we might revitalize the Senate to harness its tremendous capacity to do good work, while keeping it from being a plum patronage appointment.

  • Governance

    Posted on July 22nd, 2009

    Written by PPRI

    Tags

    … And Good Government

    … And Good Government

    When the Harper Conservatives swept to power in the wake of the Sponsorship Scandal, they vowed that they would forever sever the cozy links between consultants, lobbyists and pollsters and their friends in the government. They centralized control over budgets and introduced strict accountability rules that prohibited new program spending without arduous application procedures. While these reforms were certainly long overdue, they have stifled the creativity of bureaucrats, paradoxical though that may sound, to invent new approaches to Canada’s most serious social ills.

  • Governance

    Posted on July 11th, 2009

    Written by PPRI

    Tags

    Disallowance and the Charter

    Disallowance and the Charter

    The 1992 Charlottetown Accord famously proposed to recognize Quebec as a distinct society, reform the Senate, and constitutionally entrench the Supreme Court of Canada. Among its other, less prominent, provisions was curtailing the federal power of disallowance…The ascendancy of the federal principle has historically restrained the exercise of disallowance (Vipond 127), but in light of an earlier, successful, amendment of the Constitution in 1984, and particularly, of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and its ramifications for federalism, disallowance can now be repurposed as an instrument for the defense of minority rights.

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