THE BIG NEWS OUT OF OTTAWA last week was that Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to play Santa to 18 Canadians by appointing them to the Senate.

Some see this as an abandonment of Mr. Harper's commitment to Senate reform, but others as simply a first step toward giving Conservatives a Senate majority sometime in the next year or two, as Liberal senators die, resign or reach the mandatory retirement age of 75.

As we understand it, at least a couple of the 18 Senate vacancies are in Ontario, and that fact has led to speculation that one beneficiary of the Harper plan might be John Tory, who has spent more than a year in an unsuccessful bid to find a Progressive Conservative MPP willing to give up his or her seat in the Ontario Legislature.

The provincial PC leader currently has a selfimposed Dec. 31 deadline to find a vacant riding that he can contest in a by-election.

Queen's Park observers have suggested the most likely Senate candidate would be veteran MPP Bob Runciman, a former cabinet minister and supporter of an elected Senate who is from the party's right wing. Mr. Runciman said he had not been contacted by the Prime Minister's Office but that if the offer did come, "I'd give it serious consideration."

However, Mr. Runciman happens to represent the Eastern Ontario riding of Leeds-Grenville, and, while it might be a fairly safe seat for Mr. Tory to contest, it would be a long way from the Greater Toronto Area, let alone his Toronto home town.

As we see it, a far better choice for Mr. Harper would be Dufferin-Caledon's Sylvia Jones, who succeeded Mr. Tory as our local MPP and would make some great contributions to the Upper House, dominated as it has been by elderly males.

We don't know for sure, but strongly suspect that in its more than 125 years Dufferin County has never had one of its residents receive a Senate appointment. But whether or not that's actually the case, we've no doubt Ms. Jones would be an excellent choice.

Just how or precisely when Mr. Harper plans to make the appointments hasn't been clarified, but a fairly safe assumption is that they will be announced before Parliament resumes next month.

In the circumstances, a nomination by Dufferin-Caledon MP David Tilson, for whom Ms. Jones once worked as an executive assistant, might be more than a little helpful.

As for Mr. Tory, he would be more than slightly familiar with this area, having served as MPP for the former riding of Dufferin-Peel- Wellington-Grey, and he could easily commute to Queen's Park from a new home in Caledon.

Nor should he have much difficulty winning the required byelection, particularly if this time he made a commitment to hang around instead of trying the tougher task of winning a seat in Toronto, which hasn't elected a Conservative member since the McGuinty Liberals came to power.