Rallying for reform: Senator Brown writes...

Given the internal debate among Conservative Senators over sticking to the government's campaign commitments on Senate reform, perhaps it's not surprising that a letter like this one -- written by Canada's only elected Senator, Bert Brown, and sent to the entire Conservative Senate caucus -- has leaked out:

 

To: Members of the CPC Senate Caucus

June 15, 2011

Dear Senators,

Yesterday, in Senate caucus Minister Uppal was showered with complaints about Senate elections and a nine year term.

Senators need to be reminded that when I came to the Red Chamber there were 19 Conservative Senators and 73 Liberals plus 5 independent and PC's. Despite all efforts to speak to the Liberals from the Senate and the Commons, they would not budge from appointments. When we had 18 vacancies Harper appointed very good Senators to fight fire with fire. It became obvious that he could only get a majority vote by appointing those who agreed to vote for Senate reform.

Those of us who came to the Red Chamber were there to get a majority vote for reform. Those in the Senate before Harper became Prime Minister need to realize that, had he not made appointments, the Conservatives appointed by Mulroney would now be a very small group struggling to do anything!

Every Senator in this caucus needs to decide where their loyalty should be and must be. The answer is simple; our loyalty is to the man who brought us here, the man who has wanted Senate reform since he entered politics, the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper.

Hon. Bert Brown, Senator