Prime Minister Stephen Harper's proposal to create a democratically elected Senate hit a speed bump Thursday when a Conservative-appointed senator spoke out against the idea.
Pierre Claude Nolin asked fellow members of the Upper House to vote against a bill, introduced by another Tory-appointed senator, that would allow provinces to elect Senate nominees.
If Bill S-8 becomes law, the prime minister would draw on those nominees when appointing senators.
Nolin referred to the Senate as the "chamber of sober second thought." That role would be jeopardized by democratic elections, he suggested, and could lead to more gridlock on Parliament Hill.
He brushed aside evidence such as opinion polls that show Canadians would prefer elected senators, rather than having them appointed by the prime minister.
Nolin's Liberal counterparts gave him a standing ovation following his speech.
"The Senate must be much more independent from the partisan House of Commons than it is now," Nolin said later on CTV's Power Play.
"I'm not saying non-partisan, I'm saying less partisan," he added, after host Tom Clark pointed out that Nolin was himself a partisan appointment to the red chamber.
Conservative Senator Bert Brown concurred that the Senate should be more independent from the House of Commons. But he defended the bill.
"Stephen Harper is offering this country democracy in the Senate for the first time in 143 years," said Brown, a longtime campaigner for Senate reform who was twice elected as a Senate nominee in the province of Alberta.
"It's an offer to the provinces to elect all future senators," Brown added. "Nobody's telling them they have to do it -- they have to decide themselves."
With files from The Canadian Press
