Given that the NDP's stance on the Senate has been based primarily on abolition rather than tinkering, it's a bit surprising to see NDP Democratic Reform Critic is calling for Stephen Harper to follow through on his own promised reforms. But it's not hard to see how the move can be a positive one.
By forcing Harper to justify doing nothing, the NDP may well have an opportunity to bring both voters who support abolition (who may well be willing to consider reforms as a fallback) and those who prefer reform (while generally seeing abolition as the alternative) under the same tent, rather than allowing the Cons to benefit from the latter group even as they refuse to keep their promises. And if Harper decides he can't afford to let that happen and starts seeking public commitments that his appointed senators won't stick around past an 8-year term (which makes at least as much sense as the other pledges he's apparently been demanding of appointees), then the NDP will be able to take credit for forcing the Cons to act on what they've been promising for years.
Of course, it would have been all the better if the NDP had been able to get Harper to follow through on his musings a couple of years back about pursuing abolition if reform legislation was blocked. But since there's no way Harper will take that road now that he's stacked the Senate with dozens of his cronies, making him either offer up some improvements or pay a political price is probably the best that can be done in the near term.
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