Senate

With the July 9th appointment of Salma Ataullahjan to the Senate the Conservatives now have 52 senators out of 105.   When one takes into account that Raymond Lavigne is not sitting in the Senate as long as the criminal trial is going, there are functionally only 104 Senators.  The Conservatives now have half the Senators.

On November 29th, 2010 Peter Stollery reaches mandatory retirement and a couple of weeks later on December 6th Jean Lapointe also retires.   If they are replaced with Conservatives, the government will have 54 of the possible 105 Senators, a majority.

A Conservative majority in one of the houses will change the dynamic of how politics will play out in Ottawa.  The ability of the opposition to impede the government in the Senate is vastly reduced.   It also opens the path for real reform to the Senate by the government.