Good choice, bad process

In appointing Dennis Patterson to serve as Nunavut’s next senator, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the best of an odious process.

When Willie Adams retired earlier this year after serving 32 years as senator for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut without ever having to face the voters, it’s reasonable to suppose that the people of Nunavut might now be ready for an elected senator.

Since 2006, Harper’s Conservative government has said — several times — that they would accept the appointment of elected senators, if provincial or territorial governments were to choose that option.

But there’s no evidence that the Government of Nunavut, or any other Nunavut organization, bothered to ever analyze the issue to produce a rational position on it. Although Willie Adams’s retirement date was well-known, no one, apparently, was capable of imagining anything other than the status quo. No one in the GN or the legislative assembly seems aware that they actually had a choice.

Somebody should remind Nunavut’s political class that it’s not 1977 anymore. When Pierre Trudeau, the former prime minister, offered him the job that year, Adams didn’t even know what the Senate was, and neither did many others in the Eastern Arctic.

But Nunavut’s population is now much younger on average and better educated than it was three decades ago. A majority of Nunavut residents now know how to use the internet to gain access to information on their own. Growing numbers are capable of forming their own opinions, independently of their designated political bosses. And Nunavut residents participate with enthusiasm in public government elections. It’s unfortunate that so few Nunavut leaders understand that electronic media are changing the territory right under their feet.

So because Nunavut’s powers-that-be neglected the issue, Harper’s only option was to fill the seat by appointment. Since his stated goal was to raise the number of Conservative senators to weaken the Senate’s Liberal majority, it’s inevitable that a new Nunavut senator be a loyal Tory.

And since Harper is insisting that each of the nine new senators appointed last week voluntarily agree to vacate their seats after eight years, he also had to appoint people who can be trusted to keep their word. That’s because the prime minister does not have the constitutional authority to force the resignation of a senator before the legal retirement age of 75.

Given those constraints, it’s difficult to find a better choice than Dennis Patterson.

Patterson’s long and distinguished record of service in Nunavut speaks for itself. He served 16 years as MLA for Iqaluit, during which time he served as minister of education, minister of justice and for four years, premier of the Northwest Territories. He worked tirelessly to promote Nunavut’s interests, and his influence with Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government was likely instrumental in their agreeing to the creation of Nunavut.

After his retirement from electoral politics in 1995, he maintained close ties with Nunavut through his work as a consultant for a variety of organizations and businesses. He’s thoroughly qualified for the job.

Some people may object to his appointment because of his ethnic identity. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, for example, put forward an identity politics argument when they insisted last month that Nunavut’s new senator be an Inuk.

But if this is their honestly held opinion, this logic should have led ITK, and others, to call for a Nunavut-wide senate seat election to allow Nunavut’s electorate, an overwhelming majority of whom are Inuit, to decide that issue for themselves. Such a process would surely have led to the election of an Inuk senator.

Others may object to Patterson’s appointment on the grounds that he is not a Nunavut resident. Patterson, who now lives in Vancouver, has said that he will take up residence in Ottawa, which is only three hours away from Nunavut by air.

Canada’s antiquated constitution states that a senator must own $4,000 worth of property in the province or territory they represent, but it’s not clear if actual residence is an requirement, and if so, how “residence” is defined. All the same, the appointment of a non-resident to the Senate is certainly unconventional, and may be the only weakness in Harper’s decision to appoint Patterson.

What’s clear is this: those who rejected or ignored the idea of a senatorial election cannot now object to Patterson’s appointment without looking like hypocrites. JB