At present, the standings in the Canadian Senate are:
Conxervatives - 51
(Independant) Liberals - 29
Independent - 5 (Including suspended Senators Brazeau, Duffy & Wallin)
Vacancies - 20
With the coming retirements of two more Conservatives between now and the October election date, this lends itself to an interesting question...!
If Harper thinks he'd going to lose the election, will he stack the Senate with Conservative appointees, like Pierre Trudeau did with Liberals in 1984 before he left office?
Does he risk even further alienating the public with an orgy of partisan appointments, or does he wait for the out-come of the election, and risk having a new government (Liberal, NDP, co-allition, etc.) appoint enough new Senators that will take away the Conservative majority?
Which would be the lesser of two evils?