dstewart.org

Elected Senate

Posted on 27 February 2010

I’m starting to hear quite a bit of rumbling about Senate reform being a issue in the next election. I’m not necessarily against the idea after all the system isn’t working properly the way it is now but I am afraid that the government will make the whole process even worst than it is now.

I seem to remember from my school days the the idea of the Senate is to have an unbiased overseeing body to prevent the House of Commons from running amok and pressuring them to produce complete and proper legislation. What has been happening for the last few decades is the Prime Ministers have been appointing senators, not on their merit but on their loyalty to the governing party of the day. So what we have now are a whole bunch of senators who are biased toward one of the political parties and the idea of an unbiased senate has totally gone out the window.

I can’t see an elected Senate really being an answer to the system we have today as one would expect that the same people who vote for their local MPs based on party affiliation will also vote for their Senators based on party affiliation and the Senate will be a mirror image of the House of Commons.

Another issue I have with Senators running for election is that it’s likely that Senators will be elected based on popularity instead of instead of qualifications and and abilities.

While the prospect of an unbiased Senate is probably a pipe dream there are some measures that could be taken to minimize the effects. The big parties of course won’t like but it’s about time they did something for the country instead of themselves.

1. Appointments of the Senators by the House of Commons and not the PMO.
2. Each political party who holds at least one seat in the House of Commons submits a list of candidates to choose from.
3. The party affiliation of the elected Senator to be rotated with every appointment unless all of the other parties have their quota already elected.
4. The rotation would be based on the popular vote in the previous election to try and make up a Senate that roughly resembles will of the people rather than the will of the parties.
5. Appointments would last ten years or until the senator resigns and be replaced by the House based on which party is next in rotation.

If the Senators cannot be bipartisan, and it’s pretty obvious they can’t be as things are now, these partisan inclinations need to be neutralized as much as possible in order for the Senate to perform as it was intended. Since our elected MPs can`t usually be trusted to put the country first beyond the counting of the ballots on election night Canada must have a properly run Senate to keep the House in check and honest.