On standoffs

CBC reports that the Senate is planning to take its time reviewing the Accountability Act, leading to threats from PMS to call an election over the issue:

Liberal senators say they will not be bullied by the Harper government into making a hasty review of the federal Accountability Act.

The Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs is scheduled to begin public hearings on Bill C-2 when Parliament resumes sitting in September. The bill passed third reading in the House of Commons in early August but still needs Senate approval.

Liberal members of the Senate committee said they want to do a thorough review and will think carefully about amendments to the legislation. The Conservatives have threatened to call an election if the Liberal-dominated upper chamber stalls passage of the bill.

It's hard to have much sympathy for either side at this point. After all, while the Accountability Act is certainly a substantial piece of legislation which should be reviewed appropriately, it's also been available for public review and criticism since early this year (and indeed has been amended through the input of all parties in the House of Commons) - meaning that there's no valid excuse for the Senate to stall matters now.

From Harper's standpoint, though, there's equally no reason why calling an election would be a reasonable response to Lib obstructionism in the Senate. After all, what could possibly be accomplished by rearranging the composition of the chamber which has already passed the bill when the other one isn't going to be changed by the election in any event?

The simple solution would be for both sides to cooperate to make sure the Senate is able to carry out a reasonable review without unduly delaying passage of the Act. Unfortunately, there isn't much indication that either group is willing to make any good-faith effort at this point - nor any particular likelihood that either side will answer in any meaningful way for its posturing, regardless of how far the sniping escalates. Which only highlights just how far Canada has to go in ensuring genuine accountability for all of its political actors.