Slow asylum, fast trains: three ways federal politics mattered this week
OTTAWA — The intrigue in the corridors of Parliament Hill this week was all about where the Liberals would draw their line in the sand with the Senate.
The newly empowered senators have been chipping away at the Liberal agenda for months now. Would they stand in the way of a weighty budget bill by insisting on breaking it into pieces, to more closely examine plans for a new infrastructure bank?
They’d better not, the government responded — or else.
As legislators and government officials pored over the rule books to see what “or else” actually means, the parliamentary calendar crept relentlessly towards summer, provoking a restlessness that could well be the most powerful impetus for compromise.