Yes and it’s about time. The Liberals wouldn’t do it….Mulroney wouldn’t do it!

I think the Senate can indeed play a very useful role in Canada…..but ONLY if reformed.

I am pleased to see Harper’s Conservatives making a real attempt to reform the Senate. I just hope the Supreme Court doesn’t rule against the proposal to reform it.

If it does, Harper should use the “notwithstanding” clause to do it if that’s a fit.

The NDP want to abolish the Senate which is real dumb….Like having no checks and balances on anything the governing party does??????

That’s what the reform of the Senate is all about….having an effective upper house to keep watch on Parliament legislation.

I hope it works out.

haha harper does whatever he wants reguardless of senate

So we are trying to obolish the high priced boys and girls club. Good luck on this project. Its all just smoke and mirrors.
Cheers

Well, Boudicca, if that’s true, isn’t that something you’d like to see stopped? So that Harper, and any FUTURE PMs, can’t just do that?

All they have to do is pad the senate by appointing party supporters until they get a majority in the senate….and then it’s rubber stamp time. So what is the point?

The number of seats we get in parliament should be a concern too…

That padding of the Senate could’ve been stopped if the Liberals and NDP would have been open to a meaningful reform of it when Harper suggested it. But they wouldn’t have any part of that, and then want to complain when he plays by the rules that exist? The same ones the Liberals have used to their advantage when they were in office to stack it, too. They don’t like it when the tables are turned on them, but sometimes that’s just what it takes to get movement in the right direction.

The House of Commons should be based on population, and the seat apportionment will periodically change as the population grows or shrinks throughout the country. But a Senate in any federal union should be regionally representative, so that no one region can dominate another and voices for the protection of Provincial rights can be heard and made effective in Parliament.

Fact of the matter is that PG will never be represented in a Canadian Senate unless Northern BC was to become its own province.

I think Northern BC and Northern Ontario should become provinces of their own and senate representation should be equal to all provinces. Its the only way to address the issue of majority rules when large parts of the country have small populations and lots of resources. The more urbanized Canada becomes the less the rural areas get any representation what so ever.

The Americans have it right with their sentate federally and by the states (which each came to the same conclusion on their own). The senate is the regional balance to majority rules. Therefor I support the Triple EEE senate as the only option that is viable for a future democratic Canada.

A concern I have is this talk of a senator having sufficient net worth and property qualifications for a senate seat. Is this about ensuring an elite senate? What about teachers, mechanics, and small business operators that are the middle class of society?

I believe those net worth and property qualifications are what exist now, Eagle.

They would be one of the things that Harper is seeking an opinion from the Court on, as to what it would take to Constitutionally change them. Whether Parliament could do that on its own as a type of routine ‘updating’ measure, or it’s something it could not do unilaterally if any Province objected.

They’re obviously a hold over from the days of yore, when it was believed only those who had been able to acquire real property and a certain level of net worth would be qualified to make the type of decisions required of a Senator, and be eligible for appointment to the upper house. At one time, and not all that long ago, a person had to be a property owner in a municipality to be able vote for the mayor and City council there, too.

And in the US, Senators weren’t always elected by popular vote, but were originally appointed by their State’s governor. I think a more equitable solution than creating more Provinces out of existing ones would be to combine the three Maritime provinces of NS, NB, and PEI for the purposes of representation in the Senate, if it’s to be a body that represents the regions.