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Monday, December 22, 2008 12:39 PM

The Senate appointments are good news

nspector

With the Commons prorogued, one would have hoped that the Governor-General would have nixed today's senate appointments until Prime Minister Stephen Harper clearly demonstrated that he had the confidence of the House. And it's hard not to gag at today's outpouring of patronage. Nor are the senate appointments any easier to swallow knowing that the Liberals were just as seamy when they were in power and likely will be again when they next form government.

That said, by making these appointments, Mr. Harper is acknowledging that he will not be able to achieve a Triple-E senate — Alberta's constitutional hobby horse for more than two decades. Another piece of Reform Party baggage bites the dust. For Canada, that's excellent news.

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UPDATE

Karine Fortin, of the French service of Canadian Press, reports tonight:

The 18 names have been sent to the Governor-General, who will have to confirm their appointment to the senate when it returns from its break in January.


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Norman Spector

Norman Spector

Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, is also a former academic, federal and provincial deputy minister, ambassador and newspaper publisher. He's been writing in The Globe and Mail since 1995 and in Le Devoir since 2003. In 2004, Norman began providing a daily review of the Canadian and international press on his website Norman's Spectator. His book, Chronicle of a War Foretold: How Mideast Peace Became America's Fight, was published by Douglas and McIntyre in 2003. The following year, he contributed an afterword to William Kaplan's A Secret Trial, published by McGill-Queen's University Press.