Trudeau's Senate Reforms Could Do More Harm Than Good

(This column originally appeared on the Huffington Post Blog August 15th, 2016) At the very least, it can't hurt, right? That's a tempting conclusion to draw when considering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's latest "reforms" of Canada's Senate. Gone is the longstanding tradition of the Prime Minister using a Senate seat as a reward for party activists, fundraisers, defeated candidates and other sinecure-seekers. Instead, we now have a new "independent" appointment process, with prospective candidates able to submit applications, which are then vetted by a special appointments committee (the members of which are--of course--chosen by the Prime Minister). Indeed, there's little reason to doubt Trudeau's sincerity with respect to making the Senate less partisan. In January 2014, well before he became Prime Minister, he booted all Senators from the Liberal Party caucus (where they promptly reorganized themselves into--wait for it--a Senate Liberal caucus, though they do not attend caucus together with Liberal Party MPs). And since becoming Prime Minister, his first Senate appointments have essentially been accomplished people with impressive resumes.