The following is an open letter to Senator Designate Nancy Greene Raine.
Dear Ms. Green Raine
I am writing to you to express my profound disappointment in your actions over the past several days. Your hypocrisy is emblematic of a cancer in today’s political discourse. When someone like you, who has long claimed been an advocate of Senate reform, decides to betray her principles for a comfortable seat in the Red Chamber, we have all lost something as a country.
There are very few people that Canadians can look up to, and I am incredibly saddened to know that you have deprived young Canadians of one of those people by being a party to, and indeed defending, such hypocritical actions. If you believe in the democratic institutions of this country, as you claim to, you are not serving them well, particularly when you say that the Prime Minister had no choice to appoint the eighteen Senators, including yourself.
The appointment you of yourself and the seventeen others to the Senate is not only of questionably constitutionality, but emblematic of a dirty politics unworthy of both your legacy and this great nation. I would have expected better from someone who has claimed to be truly serious about Senate reform. It has been said that everyone has their price – it is however, a rarity that we are actually able to see what that dollar value is. It’s disappointing to see such a paragon of Canadian society can be bought for a paltry $130,000 per year.
In the event that you actually are serious about reforming our upper house, I would suggest that you return your salary to the government until such time as the position that you currently hold can be duly validated by the voters of your province. Democratic legitimacy is necessary for a reformed senate, and, while I personally do not think that this is the best way to proceed, your convictions seem to indicate a different opinion. I do not think that it is unreasonable of Canadians to expect their Parliamentarians, MPs and Senators alike, to stick to their convictions. By accepting this Senate seat, you are betraying the very principals that you once espoused.
I would have been delighted to vote for you had you run in a free and fair election. Had you truly believed in such a thing, I would have expected you to advocate for same. Instead, you chose a different path.
It is said that Gold is never tarnished. You have proven that wrong.
Regards;
Matthew Naylor
