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| Carstairs offers to quit over death of key bills - Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 21:20 |
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PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Senate Government leader Sharon Carstairs offered her resignation to Prime Minister Jean Chretien after the upper chamber failed to get key pieces of legislation through Parliament before it is prorogued later this week. Mr. Chretien has made it known that he will end the current session of Parliament as Liberals officially choose Paul Martin as their new leader at the Toronto convention. The move will effectively kill two bills that were unexpectedly blocked in the Senate last Friday as the clock ran out on Mr. Chretien's 40 years in the House of Commons. Both the Chretien and Martin camps said they were disappointed by the demise of the two important bills: one to allow the creation of seven new seats in the House of Commons in time for a spring election and one that would create an independent ethics watchdog for both Houses. A House of Commons official said one reason Parliament is being prorogued is Mr. Chretien's office has lost confidence in Ms. Carstairs' ability to get the elections bill approved by the Senate if the Red Chamber had resumed sittings next week. The Senate was to return on Monday to wrap up business such as the elections bill, but a furious Ms. Carstairs pulled the plug on the legislature after Mr. Chretien's ethics bill was unexpectedly amended and returned to the House of Commons. A spokesperson said Ms. Carstairs was not available for comment. She made several critical statements last week about supporters of Mr. Martin, including that she would want to "vomit" if they tried to praise Mr. Chretien during the prime minister's last caucus meeting. On Friday, after the Senate amended an ethics bill that was considered part of Mr. Chretien's legislative legacy, Ms. Carstairs snapped: "The Senate has been depicted for years and years as an old boys' club. This to me is an example of how the old boys' club works." Her offer to resign was turned down by Mr. Chretien even though she will likely be replaced by Mr. Martin with B.C. Senator Jack Austin. Mr. Chretien is expected to leave office after he returns from an early December Commonwealth summit in Nigeria. Liberal MP Roger Gallaway, an outspoken member of Mr. Martin's camp, said the logjam of legislation last week in the Senate was caused by Ms. Carstairs. He said he heard reports from other senators that Ms. Carstairs "lost it" last week in the heat of the battle, lashing out at her apparent Liberal enemies in the Senate. "It is a rather sad spectacle. She speaks often of her vast experience in the electoral field. Maybe it's time she got back to it," said Mr. Gallaway, who has clashed in the past with Ms. Carstairs. He said Ms. Carstairs played an undetermined role in the death of the elections bill, whose passage was being slowed by the Conservative opposition. "It's a bizarre way of exacting revenge when you attack your own," said Mr. Gallaway. Chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley has said the boundaries bill must pass this fall to give his officials time to prepare for a spring election, which Mr. Martin has indicated is desirable. An officer at Elections Canada said Mr. Kingsley is proceeding with work in preparation for the passage of the elections bill this fall and would not speculate on what action would be taken if it failed. Eddie Goldenberg, the prime minister's senior policy adviser, said Sunday Mr. Kingsley should continue preparing for an early election even if the bill doesn't pass this fall, since it is likely that Mr. Martin's government would pass it in the new year. The Senate's ability to block legislation last week is prompting new questions about the legitimacy of the "House of Patronage" and the growing expectation that it may become an impediment to Mr. Martin's plans for governing. Filled mostly with loyalists to Mr. Chretien, the Senate may flex its rarely used powers to make a shambles of Mr. Martin's plan for parliamentary reforms. And Mr. Chretien, who appointed Liberal organizer Terry Mercer to the Senate on Friday, still has three more Senate seats to fill with loyalists before leaving office. The prime minister has so far sent 54 senators to the unelected chamber since 1993 -- all of them Liberals except for two who chose to sit as independents. Mr. Martin has said he won't act to reform the Senate because he wants to avoid the constitutional talks required for such significant changes, but if the Red Chanber proves difficult, perhaps he'll change his mind. |