LOOK OUT! IS THE SENATE LURCHING TO LIFE?

Is it possible there's a plot afoot to make the Canadian Senate look relevant?

No one can be certain of this since nothing official or even unofficial has
been announced in Ottawa.

But when such a discredited body with such a longstanding reputation for
housing doddering old poops and fuddy-duddies launches such a stunningly
activist agenda relating to some of Canada's most controversial policy
matters, you've got to suspect something's going on.

Could it be Canada's Senate -- annual budget of $64 million for 105
senators -- is launching a covert campaign to prove it's not just a resting
place for aging politicos and flacks?

Perhaps one of the senators awoke suddenly from a snooze on the office
couch, and realized now is the ideal time to try to shine.

After all, the Senate may never again have such a moribund, visionless
government as the current one -- against which it could, by comparison,
look good.

Whatever the impetus and however hard it may be to believe, evidence is
slowly building that some Senators are -- get ready for it -- working!

It was only a couple of years back that journalist Claire Hoy wrote a book:
Nice Work: The Continuing Scandal of Canada's Senate.

A press release accompanying the book read: "Be a Senator! Work three days
a week and continue to run your own business! Minimal work is required in
order to collect your salary [$100,000-plus], perks, generous expense
allowance, free travel within Canada."

But more recently, thanks to a few reform-minded members, the Senate's
profile may be shifting.

Several years back, Colin Kenny began rabble rousing against youth
cigarette smoking. He sponsored a Senate bill to force tobacco companies to
finance a special fund for advertisements against young people smoking.

In the end, his bill was thwarted in the Commons. But Senator Kenny
succeeded in putting a spotlight on the issue.

Earlier this year, an eyebrow-raising report was issued by the Senate after
nearly a year of meticulous research into defence issues: Canadian Security
and Military Preparedness.

The report laid bare the vulnerability of our ports to terrorist attacks
and the fact they're staffed in part by crooks and biker gangs.

This week, another Senate report, Defence of North America: A Canadian
Responsibility, was released. It explores the need for greater cooperation
between Canada and the U.S.

"The U.S.," the report rightly warns, "is determined to improve its
homeland defence and is certain to approach this subject, as it must, from
a continental perspective . . . . Canada can choose to either stand back
and allow the Americans to plan for the protection of Canadian territory,
or to participate in the decisions."

Yet another blockbuster from the Senate came Wednesday when a committee
chaired by Senator Pierre Claude Nolin put forward a 600-page tome:
Cannabis: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy. It recommends
legalizing marijuana with distribution to be handled by the state.

This is a topic, like right-to-die laws or legislation allowing gay
marriage, that elected MPs often consider too hot to handle.

Would you believe in the past 20 months the Senate has issued 19 reports on
policy issues ranging from nuclear reactors to northern parks, from health
care to our relationship with Ukraine and Russia?

Now, it's too early to say the Senate has become a crucial component of
Canadian government. There continue to be, after all, many upper-chamber
types who freeload. You'll recall one had to be evicted from the Senate a
while back because he was caught residing in Mexico. Most assuredly, there
are others who nap and loaf without remorse.

And of course the Senate will always be handicapped by the fact its members
are chosen by the prime minister of the day, based on partisanship rather
than competence and energy.

Then too, as long as representation is distributed so unfairly among
provinces the Senate won't be fully respected.

So, let's not get too delirious about the chamber-of-sober-second-thought.
All that should be acknowledged at this point is that, by chance, a few
Senate souls are earning their keep.

As for doing a 180 and starting to appreciate the Senate, I'm not prepared
to go that far. It just wouldn't seem Canadian.