Abolir le sénat? Aucun doute après avoir lu ce livre.
Patrick Boyer
Our Scandalous Senate,
Dundurn, 392 pages
(Disponible à la Bibliothèque de Ville-Mont-Royal)
When J. Patrick Boyer writes that the recent senate expenses scandal “dominated media coverage, overtook the national conversation,” he may be overstating the case just a little bit. The story of four senators – Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau, and Mac Harb – who allegedly fudged their residency and claimed expenses they weren’t owed was an undeniably big story, but for many it only confirmed their sense that the senate is an anachronism filled with partisans who are being repaid for their loyalty to a political party. For others, it served as a reminder that Canada has a senate.
The first 160 pages of Our Scandalous Senate provide a well-written and detailed recap of the scandal. It doesn’t shed any new light on the situation, but does collect all the events in one place. Boyer draws heavily on the reporting of Bob Fife, the CTV reporter whose award-winning work on this story was exemplary.
The last 200 pages rehash the history of the senate and various efforts at reform, including those of the author, a Progressive Conservative MP during Brian Mulroney’s tenure as prime minister. Much of this detail could have been condensed, with more attention paid to what might be done to reform the senate now and why it continues to prove so difficult to change.
Boyer is a largely amiable guide. His writing seldom distracts from the story he is telling, but neither does it manage to render the tedious passages enjoyable.
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Un article de l’auteur J. PATRICK BOYER dans le Globe and Mail
Senate is more rotten than its parts
Patrick Boyer is the author of Our Scandalous Senate,published by Dundurn. He was MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore from 1984 to 1993.
Last week’s 31 criminal charges against Senator Mike Duffy, added to the criminal charges in February against senators Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau, topped up with the 2011 conviction of then-senator Raymond Lavigne for fraud and breach of trust, raise serious questions about the Senate itself and its lax financial administration and culture of entitlement that facilitates rather than thwarts sloppiness and greed.
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