Abolish the Senate

With a pending Conservative win this Monday, the temptation will be for the Tories to try and 'reform the senate'. Because it is as Harper said a check on his parties power as the government due to being Liberal dominated.

The Triple E senate is the a key plank in the Reform/Alliance/Conservative party.

But as I have said before real electoral change would be the abolition of the Sentate, expansion of the House of Commons and proportional representation.

And apparently the Editors at the Edmonton Journal agree with me.

Cutting a different deficit
The last time Canada stood on the brink of political change, the deficit on everybody's lips was fiscal, not democratic.

The last of our three paths to reducing the democratic deficit -- electoral reform -- is the most interesting and the most challenging, especially for Harper. It leads us to the question of elected senators, and to a discussion of some form of proportional representation in the House of Commons, an idea most associated today with the NDP and Greens.

If he becomes prime minister, one of the easiest promises to keep on Harper's agenda may be to appoint senators elected by participating provinces.

REINVIGORATING DANGERS

Alberta backers of Senate reform might want to look at voting patterns in Quebec and Ontario over the last 15 years before getting too enthusiastic about invigorating the current body.

Even today, with Harper purportedly on the brink of a majority nationally, the polls show his party might have a tough time winning province-wide federal races in the provinces with the most Senate seats. And who is keen on a Senate full of Bloc Quebecois members? And what about the Triple-E concept that would give vastly more clout in Senate elections to some citizens over others?

Is it democratic for provinces of 12.5 million (Ontario), 3.2 million (Alberta) and 500,000 people (Newfoundland) all to have the same number of votes in the Senate?

Finally, what about the House of Commons, a body that has its own unpopular distortions favouring Maritime and rural constituencies at the expense of urban ridings like Edmonton's?

What about a House of Commons in which it is perfectly possible for the votes of two-thirds of Albertans to fill 100 per cent of the seats, leaving fully one-third with nothing but the consolation they have contributed $1.75 to the party of their choice.

Traditionally in our first-past-the-post system, parties that win power and even majority governments, despite the fact that 60 per cent of people vote against them, have no interest in some form of proportional representation that would elect Parliaments more reflective of the public's preferences.

If he wins, therefore, nothing would reinforce Harper's credentials as a democratic reformer more than a willingness to break that pattern.

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Abolish the Senate
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