The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-29
A CANADIAN CRISIS.
Brought on by the Senate May Result
in the Abolition of That Body.


in the Abolition of That Body.
Montreal, June ga crisis has arisen
in the relations of the Canadian house of
commons and senate at Ottawa, which is
exciting the greatest attention in the Do
minion and will be watched with interest
by students of constitutional history ev-
erywhere. Owing to the long continuance
in power of the Conservative party in
Canada, the deadlock, for which the con-
stitution of 1867 provided in the construc-
ton of the senate, has not before been
realized it's possibility fully appreci-
ated but with the rejection of the gov
ernment's intercolonial extension bill by
the upper house, the problem has now
fairly stated itself.
On three occasions. during the current
session has the senate crossed the house
of commons and thrown out bills which
had been passed by the popular house.
The first case was the bicycle baggage
bill, which aimed to compel the railroads
to carry bicycles as baggage. The bill
was passed by the house of commons by a
large majority and was killed in the SEN
ate. The second instance was the pilots
Incorporation bill, making the pilots of
the st. Lawrence river at Montreal and
Quebec a corporate body with certain
specified rights and privileges. The bill
passed the house, but was rejected by
the senate, and the strike of the pilots
followed and still continues, working
great and perhaps permanent injury to
the ports of Montreal and Quebec.
Neither of these bills, however, were
government measures, and, while their
rejection occasioned considerable com
ment. the senate having heretofore but
rarely asserted its power of veto, the
matter was not regarded in the light of
any great Importance. The intercOlOnial
extension bill, on the other hand, which
the senate has now thrown out, is horse
of a different color. The extension of
the Intercolonia1 Railway, government
road, from its present terminus opposite
Quebec to Montreal. was one of the most
important measures of the government
programme, and to the carrying out of
the scheme, as laid before Parliament in
the bill in question, the government de-
clared that it stood pledged.
The matter was threshed out at con-
siderable length in the house of commons
the opposition roundly denouncing the
governments proposals. The bill was
finally passed by almost a strictly party
vote, two members only of the opposi-
ton voting for the measure and one Lib
eral against it. When the bill went to the
senate, the latter body rejected it by the
strict party vote of 81 to 10.
The vote in the senate took place at
midnight and within an hour afterward,
in the house of commons, which was still
sitting, the finance minister presented a
resolution as follows:
"IntercoIonial Extension to Montreal:
To pay rental to the Grand Trunk rail-
way and Drummond County railway COM
panies for the railway from Lewis to Mon
treal, to be operated as part of the Inter
colonial Railway for nine months s157,-
Co.,
This meant that the government to cir
cumvert the senate, would put the
amount necessary for the carrying out of
the project in the supply BILL where the
senate has power to touch the item
without throwing out the estimates in
their entirety. That the item had the re-
gularIy affixed signature of the governor
general showed that the government had
taken the step deliberately. having an
ticipated the senate's action. for no one
supposed that his excellency was aroused
at 1 o'clock in the morning for the pur-
pose of signing the estimate.
The senate's reply is the appointment
of a committee to investigate into the
several features of the governments pro-
posed agreement, and on the committees
report further action will depend. 1t may
be that the senate, frightened at its own
action and fearful of the outcome of
contest with a government which already
by it's anti-election professions stands
pledged to the abolition of the upper
house, has taken this method of backing
down and permitting the bill to pass. If,
however, the senate persists in its pres
ent attitude, a constitutional crisis will be
precipitated which is likely to result in the
government appealing to the country on
the question of the second chambers abo-
lition.
The Canadian senate is constituted in a
very different manner from the senate of
the United States Its members are ap-
pointed for life by the government of the
day, which naturally selects them from
among its political supporters. Its mem
bers cannot be added to, unlike the Bril-
fish house of Lords, so that there is no
possible way of bringing an obstinate
partisan senate into conformity with the
house. Nothing can restrain the senate
from obstructing for party reasons what
ever the popular house may think well to
do.