I would really love someone to try to show why these are bad ideas:
- Establishing a federal process for electing senators. Currently the Prime Minister holds a virtually free hand in the selection of senators.
- Introducing legislation modeled on the British Columbia law requiring fixed election dates every four years, except when a government loses the confidence of the House of Commons.
- Ending "parachute" candidacies by requiring that a party's candidate have the approval of the local constituency association.
An elected Senate is long overdue in this Country. And I think it is something we need now more than ever. Whatever government is formed in the next election it is likely that governing party will have little or no representation from large parts of the country. The Liberals could form a government with zero seats in Alberta and no more than one seat in Saskatchewan and nothing outside of Montreal. The Conservatives could form a government with no seats in all of Quebec. Over 80% of Quebec seats will be filled by a party that has no candidates, or interest, in the rest of the country. Yet again, it will be Ontario who decides who will form the government.
This balkanization is due to the set-up of our Parliamentary democracy and the Liberals mastery of pitting one region against the other. This can only happen because of an imbalance of power amongst the regions.
A Triple-E Senate would ensure a tighter nation, where everyone has to work together, instead of tasymmetricalcal federalism that is tearing this country apart.
The time for this idea has come.
Update: Paul Wells is up to the task. I tend to agree. We need wholesale changes. This is why I mentioned Triple-E.
