Francophones slam NDP plan to abolish Senate

OTTAWA — Could the NDP’s “roll-up-the-red-carpet” campaign to abolish the Senate come back to haunt the party?

A day after leader Tom Mulcair launched his campaign to convince Canadians to ditch the red chamber — which is now under intense fire over the spending habits of some members — the Federation des communautes francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada issued a press release slamming the move.

The organization, which says it represents about 2.6 million French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec, argues the plan “completely ignores” everything the Senate does for official language minority communities.

“In the debate over the relevance of the Senate, no one ever mentions all the Senators who have made a difference, like Jean-Robert Gauthier, who fought to give real clout to the Official Languages Act, or Pierre de Bane, who blew the whistle on CBC/Radio-Canada’s failings in terms of its pan-Canadian mandate,” FCFA President Marie-France Kenny said.

“We never talk about how people like Percy Mockler, Gerald Comeau, Maria Chaput and Claudette Tardif work, every day, for the greater benefit of French-speaking citizens.”

The group said scrapping the chamber would “deprive official language minorities of their ability to have a voice in federal institutions which elections cannot give them” and that it would “fundamentally alter Canada’s parliamentary system.”

Abolishing the Senate has been part of NDP policy for 50 years. The party, however, launched a website and petition Wednesday, that’s already garnered more than 5,000 signatures, as a first step. Mulcair also indicated he would begin consulting with provincial and territorial leaders as well as Canadians coast-to-coast on the matter. And should it form government in 2015,  expect abolishing the Senate to be priority No. 1.

But with 57 seats in Quebec, the NDP fancies itself a strong voice for Francophones in Parliament and the FCFA’s criticisms ought to be particularly concerning.

Quebec is already challenging Senate reform in the courts and would most likely oppose abolishing the chamber since it would mean losing significant clout in the House of Commons since Quebec and Ontario both get 24 Senate seats, 14 more than any other province.

If it’s going to form government in 2015, the party will need to hang on to the seats it has in Quebec and expand elsewhere. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the plan to abolish the upper chamber will hurt the NDP at the polls.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Tobi Cohen