If Only He Had a Battle Station - Then He Wouldn't Need the Senate

Proroguing apparently means you can rush through 18 Senate appointments before having your political career put out of its misery. And here I thought it meant no government business except for the basic day-to-day stuff. I guess appointing Senators is something you do all the time, roughly equivalent to making sure that the civil service has sufficient toner for the copy machines.

Why did we have so many vacancies in the first place? Because Harper wanted to change how the appointments get made, which is fine and all since we have a mechanism for determining that (get 50% of the population and at least 7 provinces to agree). It is interesting to see that his idealism on Senate reform is taking a back seat to the practicality of his days being numbered.

Of course, Ignatieff isn't all that gung ho for a coalition, so maybe Harper will stick around. I wouldn't count on it though.