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Pamella Wallin hopes Canadians can ‘think new thoughts’ about the Senate

Sep 21, 2017 | 7:40 PM

LETHBRIDGE –   She brought a message about the reform process that’s underway in the Senate.
 
Former Journalist, Canadian Ambassador to the US and now Senator Pamella Wallin was in Lethbridge Thursday at the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA), to chat about reform of the upper house.
 
“I want people to understand it and to participate in it and to, maybe, share with me some of the ideas about what they think is going on, or should go on.”  She continued by noting,  “This process needs to open up and that’s why I’m here in front of groups like this, that want to engage in debate, and think new thoughts about old institutions.”
 
Wallin believes Canadians have a very mixed opinion of the senate.
 
“There have always been people who’ve understood what the role is – the check and balance on a partisan house of Commons, that’s why there was so much discussion about whether the senate was becoming too partisan, and there are others who believe it should be abolished or elected – the Supreme Court has ruled on that so it’s going to be a little complicated, but I do think in this process there’s room for more engagement.”
 
The Senator says when it comes to senate reform, she has on her email every single day, probably a hundred emails.  However, in the wake of the proposed tax changes for small businesses, I have about 300 emails every day.
 
“I would like people to engage in that process, understand that we have a role in democratic decision making, and help me be informed and share their views.”
 
 On the issue of the Senate expense scandal, Wallin hopes there is a better understanding that that’s exactly what happens when you have partisan politics at play in an institution.
 
“The punishments are meted out if you disagree or if you take a different course and I think some of the court decisions we had in the Duffy case and some of the things that we’ve heard from the judge and from others in that case have made it pretty clear that the bad behaviour was a problem that the senate itself has – you can’t be above the law itself, in terms of who it likes and who it doesn’t like and I think a little bit of sunshine on that one helps”.
 
Regarding the expense issue, the Saskatchewan Senator, who was appointed to the upper house by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009, has continually maintained her innocence and claimed she was being singled out for being at odds with her colleagues.

However, after an audit critical of her spending, she repaid roughly $150,000 for items deemed to be unjustified.