Harper going after the Senate

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to make his escalating war with the Liberal-dominated Senate into the Conservative "battle horse" in the next election, a senior government official told CanWest News Service.

Although it emerged Wednesday that the Liberals and Conservatives are in talks to pass the Federal Accountability Act into law no later than next week, the ongoing skirmish between the minority government and the Senate has delayed Harper's stated plan to bring legislation to elect senators in the fall session, which ends next week.

That bill has been shelved until after Parliament's winter break, the government official said, because the legislative system is "plugged." The Conservatives will attempt to make that reality a top-of-mind issue as they prepare for the defeat of their minority government and another election campaign, likely early next year.

"The Senate is going to become the fulcrum in the next election," said the Conservative official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

I have to say, the only reform I'm interested in for the Senate these days is abolition. Add the seats from the Senate to the Commons in a top-up PR system, and the provinces that have a guaranteed number of seats because of their Senate representation can have the same guarantees in the Commons.

Abolition of the Senate is, come to think of it, one policy that I unreservedly agree with the NDP on. There aren't many of those. (I just disagree with the other parties more.)