One of the hallmark difficulties the current government has had as it approaches the midpoint is in making Governor in Council appointments, whether it's to positions like the Immigration and Refugee Board, superior court judges, independent officers of parliament, or as it turns out, Senators. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did put a new appointment process for senators into place to fill the backlog of vacancies that he inherited from Stephen Harper, and the fact that it happened relatively quickly compared to other appointment processes, it seems to have fallen to the wayside as the number of Senate vacancies mounts.
Currently there are seven vacant seats in the Senate, which will climb steadily by September, and there will be eleven vacancies by the end of the year, possibly more (especially if Senator Jacques Demers opts to resign, as he has not yet returned to work after the stroke he suffered in April of 2016). This lack of new appointments is becoming a problem for the Senate, particularly because it creates an expectation for another mass appointment. While it's unlikely that Trudeau will let it get to another twenty or so vacancies as Harper did on two different occasions, the fact of the matter is that the Senate simply isn't designed to take big groups of newcomers at a time.
The way things should run is that the PMO should be aware of upcoming vacancies and already have the people who are in charge of appointments his arm's length committee in this case on the case months in advance so that when one senator reaches their retirement date, that there is someone ready to take their place, with those who resign early taking a little longer, but you would think that a well-run appointments office would have their feelers out in each of the provinces and territories for someone who could fill the role. That way, the Senate is able to absorb new members naturally, and in a manner that has them supported and guided by the existing membership and acclimatizes them to the environment in a manner that doesn't stress the chamber. And make no mistake, mass appointments do stress the institution. They did in 2008 when Harper made his panic appointments in the wake of the prorogation crisis, and because so many senators came in to fill the depleted Conservative ranks in the Senate, it was too easy to tell them that they were there to do his bidding and to brandish the whip before them especially when the Senate leadership was rather supine in the face of overreach by the PMO in their attempts to control the Senate. Trudeau's mass appointments since he formed government have stressed the chamber in yet more ways, with independents thrown to the wolves without the support or guidance of a caucus or enough other independent senators to mentor them. Under intense media scrutiny, they were and expected to hit the ground running, without necessarily understanding how the Chamber operates.
If things continue down their current path, we are on track for a second stress incident, with the question mark of how those independents and Trudeau has insisted that all of his appointments will be independent will integrate given the formation of the Independent Senators Group, a quasi-caucus whose leadership is now up in the air, which could be very bad for the integration and mentorship of the incoming batch. That batch will also push the ISG into the position of being the largest caucus, and that will have repercussions as those senators gain control of important committees like Internal Economy and Rules, and will be able to start reshaping an institution that they don't fully appreciate the operation of in order to fulfill a vision that they have.
This question of vision leads me to my next point, that the appointment process that Trudeau put into place may not have been the best one, in particular because it relies on people to apply for the job rather than on the committee seeking out community leaders with good records who may not have otherwise considered public service in such a capacity. Indeed, it was the vision of political scientists like Emmett Macfarlane, who Trudeau consulted with when he shaped his more independent Senate, that nomination was preferable to application. Why is this an issue? In part because I think that a certain humbleness is being lost under the new system.
Which isn't to say that a lot of really worthy senators haven't been appointed, because there have been some really great picks. But I'm also hearing talk about some senators developing outsized egos, which should have been expected if you're asking for people to apply for this kind of position, and some of that is starting to bleed out into the public if you pay close attention. I'm finding that we're getting fewer senators like Romeo Dallaire, who would never have otherwise sought office until approached by the government of the day, and instead we are getting a new contingent of activists in social science fields who have their own ideas about how to shape policy without going through the political process, and that has the potential to be increasingly problematic as time goes on.
One of my concerns is that the appointment process has empowered some of these senators in such a way that makes them deaf to public criticism, because they intend to use their newfound power. Indeed, I've heard stories that among some of these new senators, a level of sanctimony is developing, irking fellow colleagues and leading to accusations of arrogance. And it's hard not to see why it happens, when you have a group of people who were leaders in their fields, who have goals they want to achieve, and who are less likely to be collaborative like the Senate has traditionally been. These are all by-products of the process that Trudeau has instituted, which for all of its good intentions, is creating its share of problems, and those problems compound the longer they continue.
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