Tory senators fighting back, blast NDP for advocating Senate abolition

OTTAWA – Some Conservative senators are fighting back, defending themselves and the reputation of their maligned institution after taking a year-long drubbing over the Senate expenses scandal.

Sen. Jean-Guy Dagenais is the second senator this week to join the fray, directly challenging a New Democrat MP for advocating abolition of the upper house in a flyer sent to her constituents.

In a letter sent to all parliamentarians, Dagenais refers to Charmaine Borg’s flyer as “a rag” and suggests she’s an ignorant, powerless Quebec MP who was elected by fluke and stands little chance of being re-elected.

NDP House leader Nathan Cullen calls the letter “paternalistic, childish, condescending and frankly misogynistic.”

Dagenais is following the lead of Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella, who issued an unprecedented statement earlier this week blasting NDP Leader Tom Mulcair for accusing him of making fraudulent expense claims.

Kinsella held an extraordinary news conference Monday in the Senate chamber, which he used in part to offer a history lesson on the merits of having a second parliamentary chamber.