Apolitical Staples

Yawn. I heard Steve threatend to pull the plug on the government this morning if he didn’t get the last danish at the tory caucus meeting.

Who better to fight with then a bunch of people who think they have hit the 6/49 only to find out they won the pot at the corner church bingo, eh. If you can’t abolish it, at least make it less of a lotto win and more of a respectable job.

Limiting Senate terms to eight years is a good idea, in my opinion, but I strongly suspect that to impose this just from parliament would be unconstitutional. It requires the support of not only the federal government, but of seven provinces taking in 50% of the population, doesn’t it?

If that’s the case, this will take a while. If the motion fails because Harper doesn’t follow this procedure, and he fights the election on it, Canadians will call him for being dishonest. So stick to the procedure, take your time, and bring the pressure to bear on the provinces. I can’t imagine what their objections would be. It would be ratified in two years, tops.

This would easily pass without a new election if the Liberals and the PMO weren’t so surly. And Harper shares half of that blame.

“It requires the support of not only the federal government, but of seven provinces taking in 50% of the population, doesn’t it?”

Constitution Act, 1982:

1. Subject to sections 41 and 42, Parliament may exclusively make laws amending the Constitution of Canada in relation to the executive government of Canada or the Senate and House of Commons.

41 - not applicable

1. (1) An amendment to the Constitution of Canada in relation to the following matters may be made only in accordance with subsection 38(1): (a) n/a
   (b) the powers of the Senate and the method of selecting Senators;
   (c) the number of members by which a province is entitled to be represented in the Senate and the residence qualifications of Senators;
   (d) n/a;
   (e) n/a; and
   (f) n/a

Harper proposes to limit senate terms. This limitation does not fall into the categories in section 42 requiring amendment according to section 38(1)(James’s 7 & 50%). Thus, senate term limitation is within the scope of amemdments that may be made by Parliament alone, as per section 44 of the Constitution Act, 1982.

That first provision cited is section 44, not section 1.

According to a Senator on CBC Politics last night there can be a quasi-elected Senate without opening the Constitution as well. AS long as the election does not automatically put you in the Senate, rather the PM still appoints whoever was elected, then that is fine.

Thanks for the clarification. The eight year term is something I can get behind.

The way I see it is you could use the Senate for proportional representation and the HOC for the direct democracy part. The way it could work is that the Senate could be populated with members put forth by the parties IAW the direct number of votes the party receives. You could even leave the job in the Senate the same, sober second thought to the HOC, and then you have a viable quasi-elected single term Senate.

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