Ottawa

It wasn’t raining icebergs when the guy who built the Titanic built the Titanic

“As you know, in spite of my age I’m quite a veteran of these constitutional wars. I think I’ve learned a lot from them. And I think we’ve demonstrated pretty clearly that we’re moving this in the right direction. I don’t think it’s been moving in such a positive direction in a very long time. Who would have thought, even 25 or 30 years ago, we’d have a Parti Québécois that doesn’t even want to talk about a referendum on sovereignty, let alone sovereignty, and a so-called sovereignist leader in Ottawa who now says he’s campaigning for federalist votes, and who doesn’t want to talk about sovereignty. I do think we’re moving this in the right direction. I know a lot about what happened before, and I think we’ve learned from it. It will always be something that requires careful management, but I really do think on this one we’re on the right track.”

— Stephen Harper, in an interview with Maclean’s three days into this campaign

“Also in the platform, the Tories have upped the stakes in their bid to remake the Senate, vowing to abolish the chamber if they are frustrated by Senators in their bid to bring in term limits and an election process for the Upper House.”

Globe and Mail report, today

“[Quebec constitutional-affairs minister Benoît] Pelletier said the Senate, intended to represent the provinces in counter-weight to representation by population in the House of Commons, was ‘part of the essential conditions presiding (over) the birth of Canada.”

“As a result, he said the chamber can’t be significantly changed without the approval of the provinces.”

— CTV news, May 23

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