Larry Campbell Disagrees With Me in the Vancouver Sun

After an op/ed of mine entitled 'Larry Campbell's Criticisms Unreasonable' was printed in the Vancouver Sun's 'Issues and Ideas' section last week, Senator Larry Campbell responded with a letter published in today's issue of the Sun. I wrote a recent blog post titled 'A Swipe At Senate Reform' (available in my facebook notes section) and the op/ed was an abridged version of it. Below is Senator Campbell's response:

Upper chamber necessary to counter Tory government

Published: Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Re: Larry Campbell's criticisms unreasonable by Tim Mak, June 21

Tim Mak seems to feel as though unilateral action from the federal government on Senate reform is acceptable for provinces like British Columbia. I couldn't be in greater disagreement with this assessment.

The Senate is a body that exists as a product of the Constitution Act of 1867, and is designed to curb the "democratic excesses" of the elected House of Commons and provide regional representation. Thus, in response to a prime minister who callously governs like he has a majority, the upper chamber is indeed a necessary body of "sober second thought" acting on behalf of all Canadians.

It is unclear as to whether Stephen Harper has the constitutional authority to initiate such changes without the consent of the provinces. That is why the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee is asking for the bill in question to be referred to the Supreme Court of Canada.

As importantly, Senate reform should not be attempted in a piecemeal fashion. Prince Edward Island has 0.4 per cent of the country's population and four Senate seats. Comparatively, British Columbia has six seats for a population that is 33 times larger. Harper cannot claim to be serious about change and still neglect such inequity.

Being accustomed to cheap electoral politics has never been my modus operandi, as Mak claims. Fighting for equality and what is right, no matter how difficult, is much more up my alley.

SENATOR LARRY CAMPBELL

Vancouver