The Senate Liberals are no more. In an exercise in rebranding, the remaining senators in that caucus have named themselves the Progressive Senate Group, with a statement of shared values that, quite pointedly, allows them to still maintain political affiliations outside of the Senate, and now the work of attracting new members starts in earnest, lest the group fall below the threshold for official status when two of its members reach their mandatory retirement age in the New Year. It also means that for the first time in Canadian history, there are no Liberals in the Senate, which is an indictment of the changes that Justin Trudeau has made to the institution. So what does the rebrand accomplish and how does this change the dynamics in the Upper Chamber?
The group's stated purpose reads:
The Progressive Senate Group is made up of like-minded individuals with different backgrounds, strong convictions and often differing opinions. Members are inspired by the Algonquin word, "Mamidosewin," which means meeting place and walking together. While senators are free to champion their individual goals, the Progressives recognize the value of working together with a shared purpose. Applying their experience, knowledge and accumulated expertise, they will work together in the chamber of sober second thought to advance progressive views, including walking together with Indigenous peoples in advancing reconciliation.
There are a couple of things to unpack here. The first is the value of working together with a shared purpose. One of the biggest problems with the way the Independent Senators Group operates is that there is little ability for them to coordinate any kind of response or plan of action on any piece of Senate business, which has slowed down the process of legislation in the Senate tremendously. Some Liberal-turned-Progressive senators like Senator Lillian Dyck have remarked on this very fact to the media before, and this could start to appeal to some Independent senators who are frustrated with the fact that managing the ISG is akin to herding drunken cats.
The focus on Indigenous reconciliation as well as the inspiration of "Mamidoswein," which they have included in their new caucus logo, is a bit of an extension of what the Senate Liberals were already doing, and I'm told came from more than the two Indigenous senators in the caucus when they were engaged in their rebranding discussions. That said, the political realist in me sees this as possibly being an attempt to head off the talk of another potential split from the ISG by Indigenous senators to form their own caucus, and instead draw them into the Progressive fold.
Like the splintering of the Canadian Senators Group primarily from the ISG, the Progressives have also ensured that they are not going to insist on independence purity tests from their senators, which could be their biggest selling feature for left-of-centre senators. There has been a recognition from the Progressives when they were Liberals that there were a number of new senators who would have joined them if they hadn't been associated with the Liberal brand because they took seriously the request by the prime minister that they sit as independents (though nothing actually compels them to do so), and some of them have been quite self-righteous about that independence (and there is enough back-patting recorded in Hansard to prove it). By shedding the Liberal brand a recognition of the current reality of the Senate more than any feelings about the party itself it opens the caucus up to new blood, whether that's from any of the incoming senators to fill the five current vacancies (with five more in the next six months), or from current members of the ISG.
According to Senator Joseph Day, the interim leader of the Progressives, one of the advantages that the rebranded caucus has is the depth of experience that they can use to mentor new senators with and that is crucial for not only new senators, but some of the newer Independents who still haven't quite grasped how the Chamber operates and is supposed to operate. It's also one reason why Day and presumably the other Progressives will work to resist the attempts by the ISG to rewrite the Senate rules, given that the new Independents haven't been in place long enough to grasp the nuances of the Chamber, or how the way it operates in a hung parliament is different from in a majority, which will rapidly become relevant as Parliament is summoned in the next three weeks. Day also said that the rebranding as Progressives is also somewhat reflective of the current House of Commons, where the majority of Canadians voted for parties that identify as progressive, even if their particular party labels have differences between them.
Day says the signals he's received from some of the Independents is that there are those who are willing to join the group and I've heard this from others in the Senate as well but the timing of any future members may not be immediate. One of the considerations is that the ISG will be holding a retreat in two weeks that will likely reaffirm the leadership of Senators Yuen Pau Woo and Raymonde Saint-Germain, and any direction that the group agrees to could shake loose any Independents who are chafing with the way the ISG is headed (as we saw with the creation of the CSG). As well, there will be changes to the "Government Representatives Office" as Senator Diane Bellemare resigned as Senator Peter Harder's deputy and rejoined the ISG, meaning that whoever is chosen to fill that vacancy will also help shape the mood of the overall Senate particularly if Trudeau decides that he wants to change up the Government Leader err, "representative" at the same time (or even restore the proper role of the Government Leader as a member of Cabinet, particularly if that senator is one from Alberta or Saskatchewan). There will be more movement in the Senate before Parliament is summoned, and where everyone winds up could be fascinating indeed.
Photo Credit: iPolitics
