Last week Conservative Senator Don Plett apologized for losing his temper on the Canadian Senate floor. He got angry at two female Liberal Senators when a carbon tax exemption bill important to farmers failed to get Senate approval because the women introduced amendments and cut off debate on the bill.
This meant the bill would be sent back to the House of Commons and would probably get lost in a backlog of pending legislation there.
Senator Plett's apology for what one newspaper editor described as a 'tantrum' was certainly commendable but............ before he lost his temper about his important bill being killed in the Senate he might have remembered important bills he has been responsible for killing, bills introduced not by the Liberals but by his very own female Conservative colleagues.
Rona Ambrose the former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
In 2019 former Conservative party leader Rona Ambrose was trying to get a bill through the Senate that had been passed in Parliament. It ensured judges in Canada would receive training in sexual assault law.
But Senator Plett the Conservative Party Whip in the Senate at the time decided to stall it in the Senate for over 700 days so it couldn't pass before the next federal election call. The bill died.
Ms Ambrose did not lose her temper with Senator Plett but she did call him out in the media for failing to protect Canadian women.
Photo of former Canadian Senator Nancy Greene Raine from her social media page
Another bill Senator Plett effectively killed at the same time was one former Olympic skier and Conservative Senator Nancy Greene Raine introduced. Worried about the high rate of childhood obesity in Canada her bill sought to curtail the advertising of foods high in sugar, salt and fat from children's media programming and prevent grocery stores from displaying those items at kids' eye level.
Senator Greene Raine didn't publicly display anger at Senator Plett for effectively dismissing her bill but I'm sure she was disappointed that he failed to protect Canada's children.
Although partisan politics most certainly played into the effective dismissal of Senator Plett's bill for farmers that cannot be said of bills advanced by his own party members that he has had dismissed.
I understand why Senator Plett was upset and angry at the two Liberal Senators who failed to protect Canadian farmers by effectively dismissing his bill but........... he might do well to remember times in the past when the shoe was on the other foot and his Senate actions meant bills his Conservative colleagues introduced were dismissed and Canadian women and children went unprotected as a result.
Other posts.........
Should Women With Young Children Be Politicians?
Healthy Environments? Not Gyms or Arenas
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