JUSTIN TRUDEAU, leader of the third-party Liberals, caught everyone—including his own senators—off-guard when he declared on January 29th that the 32 Liberals in the Senate would henceforth sit as independents. Stripping senators of their official party status is the first step in his plan to end partisanship and patronage in the 105-seat, unelected second chamber of Canada’s parliament, he said. He encouraged the ruling Conservatives to follow suit. The second step will come only if the Liberals win the 2015 election, after which Mr Trudeau promises to set up an independent, non-partisan body to vet and recommend people for the prime minister to appoint to the Senate.
Ending a 147-year-old tradition of party representation in the Senate was a bold move, and a difficult one. Among the senators Mr Trudeau informed of their new status 30 minutes before his public announcement were party stalwarts named by his late father Pierre Trudeau when he was Liberal prime minister in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yet his move has the potential to offer a way out of a bitter political debate.
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