KRIS SIMS: Naheed Nenshi needs to be clear on abolishing the Senate

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Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has been oddly quiet about abolishing the expensive, pointless, wasteful, undemocratic Senate in Ottawa.

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Which is weird, because Albertans are being asked if they want to scrap the Senate in a few weeks and it’s super weird because Nenshi isn’t known for being quiet about anything.

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On Oct. 19, Albertans will be voting on nine referendum questions.

Question 7 reads: “Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?”

Support for scrapping Senate

As a party, the NDP has long maintained the federal Senate in Ottawa should be abolished.

Under newly minted leader Avi Lewis the federal NDP continues to advocate for abolishing the Senate, stating: “The Senate is an archaic institution that violates the most basic principles of democratic government.”

The late former leader of the NDP, Jack Layton, also called for the Senate to be scrapped, calling it “outdated and obsolete, a 19th-century institution that has no place in a modern democracy in the 21st century.”

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The NDP’s call for the abolition of the Senate goes back to the origin of the party.

Former Saskatchewan premier and member of Parliament Tommy Douglas was a founder of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, which evolved into today’s NDP.

The CCF’s foundational platform, the Regina Manifesto of 1933, states Canada must “amend the Constitution to abolish the Senate.”

With the NDP consistently insisting for nearly 100 years that the Senate in Ottawa needs to be scrapped, Albertans are suddenly hearing crickets from the leader of the provincial wing of the party, when they would be most interested in hearing from him.

A search of the Alberta NDP’s news release website along with a search of Nenshi’s online X account show no mention of the Senate referendum question.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has repeatedly asked Nenshi’s team what his party’s stance is on the Senate referendum question, but there’s still no reply.

Nenshi wouldn’t be alone if he waved the orange flag and said the Senate should be abolished, he would have company from across the aisle.

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Even Preston Manning says it’s time to get rid of the Senate.

The founder of the Reform Party said Albertans should send a strong message to Ottawa during the referendum in October.

“The Canadian Senate is an ineffective and useless chamber,” Manning told the Canadian Taxpayers Federation during an interview on Juno News. “Even people who support reform will vote ‘get rid of it.’”

This is a sea change in the policies and approach to the Senate, because Manning is the grandfather of the movement to make it elected, equal and effective. Now he says it’s time for it to go.

Manning never made it to the rank of Right Honourable, but one of his acolytes did.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper tried reforming the Senate by naming people to it who had been elected by Albertans, but he was blocked from doing so by the Supreme Court.

Costly institution

The Senate has cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars in the last decade and it’s costing more than $140 million this year.

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Senators are paid more than $192,000 per year as a base salary and they get to sit there until they are 75 years old.

The speaker of the Senate blew nearly a million dollars over the last three years, globetrotting with her entourage to places such as Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Japan, Romania, New Zealand and Benin.

Douglas, grandfather of the NDP, said the Senate should be abolished.

Manning, grandfather of the Reform Party, says it’s time to vote to abolish the Senate.

Meanwhile, the current federal leader of the NDP says it’s time for the Senate to be scrapped.

What, then, is Nenshi waiting for in Alberta?

The Senate costs taxpayers a tonne of money, it is undemocratic and all attempts to reform it have failed. It’s time to abolish this expensive rubber stamp.

Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

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