ATHABASCA/BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK - Local voters who cast ballots for senator-hopefuls in the Oct. 18 municipal were pretty much in line with the rest of the province with the three Conservative Party of Canada-aligned candidates Erika Barootes, Pam Davidson and Mykhailo Martyniouk receiving the most votes of the 13 candidates.
Official results from Elections Alberta were released Oct. 26, showing Davidson was the top vote-getter in the province with 18.2 per cent of the 1,118,828 ballots cast; Barootes was close behind with 17.1 per cent; and Martyniouk garnered 11.3 per cent. Barrhead-born former Alberta cabinet minister Doug Horner finished in fourth with 8.6 per cent, while former Slave Lake mayor Karina Pillay finished in fifth with 6.9 per cent.
Athabasca and Westlock also chose those three as their top picks, but in Barrhead, Horner finished first in the town and second in the county behind Davidson, while Barootes came in third.
Alberta is the only province in Canada to hold elections for senatorial candidates and those three names will now be submitted by Premier Jason Kenney, in the hopes those chosen by Alberta residents will now be chosen to sit in the Senate on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recommendation.
That’s something Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken says he has been hopeful for, for a long time.
“I believe, and I've believed this for a long time, from the early days of the Reform Party, that we should have a Senate that reflects the will of the people in the region that the senator is actually is from, as opposed to a senator that's appointed at the will of one person — the prime minister,” said van Dijken in an interview Oct. 28. “I think that there's a role for the Senate within our democracy, but I have been disappointed for a long time that we continue to go down the road of patronage appointments as opposed to honouring the will of the people from the region that that person is appointed.”
Officially, senators are appointed by the Governor General on the recommendation of the prime minister at the time. Anyone who fits the criteria may apply, or may be nominated, to be considered for a Senate seat. In 2016, the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments was introduced to provide the prime minister with “non-binding, non-partisan, merit-based recommendations for Senate appointments that meet a high standard of integrity and collaboration.”
The advisory panel is made up of three permanent federal members and two members from each of the provinces or territories where a vacancy is to be filled.
“It would be disappointing to me if a prime minister decides to not honour the wishes of the people that have voted to have elected senators. To me, that's a slap in the face of democracy and another signal that our federation is broken,” said van Dijken.
with files from George Blais
