It’s time for everyone’s favourite pass time – senate appointment speculation! Then “when” part is easy…I assume the names will be dumped on the last Friday before Christmas. The “who” is the more intriguing part. Let’s start with the basics:

18 spots to fill
3 in BC
2 in Ontario
4 in Quebec
2 in New Brunswick
3 in Nova Scotia
1 in PEI
1 in Newfoundland
1 in the Yukon
1 in Saskatchewan

Brad Wall has been fairly gung-ho about senate elections, so Harper might decide to take a pass on that seat until they have a chance to vote. There’s also heavy speculation that a Tory MPP (most likely Bob Runciman) might be moving down the 401 to sit in the Senate, so that John Tory could get a seat at Queen’s Park. John Reynolds, Barbara McDougal, and Lewis MacKenzie also seem like solid bets at this point.

Beyond that, I won’t speculate on the names, although there’s already been a lot of speculation floating around. What I will say is that I don’t think we’re going to see 18 Tory hacks. My gut feeling is that Harper will find one or two Liberals or Dippers out there who favour an elected senate, so as to not look as partisan. We’ll probably also see a notable Canadian or two, in an effort to deflect the attention away from Harper breaking yet another promise. As others have said, the hockey historian in Harper can probably find an old NHLer somewhere to keep the Big M company.

So feel free to comment away about who should and who will be appointed.