Holes in Conservatives Elected Senate Plan
So the conservatives want an elected senate. Great idea but how are they going to do it and what is it going to look like?
If senators are elected without reforming the constitution Alberta still will have only 6 senators compared to 24 in Ontario and Quebec. Also, are the senators going to be elected by party where the senators are chosen proportionally or are they going to be elected individually and Ontario voters will have to select 24 senators from a list over 100.
The senate needs to be elected but it needs to be done properly. The constitution needs to be opened up and Canadians have to decide if each province should receive an equal amount of seats or should the regions by divided more fairly. A fairer represenation (which would have greater western influence) would be to make BC a region, and divide the senators equally among Ontario, Quebec, BC, the Prairies, and Atlantic Canada.
The best solution would be to give each province 4 senators and select the senators proportionally by party. If one party receives 75% of the votes they capture all 4 senate seats, 50% would get 3 senate seats, and after that each party that receives 25% would get at least one senator and the more popular party would receive more senators. Also the House of Commons should remain the dominate house and in order to defeat a bill the senate would need a 2/3 majority but would still be allowed to delay a bill.
Proportional represenation would end the heavy regionalism of Canadian politics that allows the dominate party in a specific region to win all the seats in that region and leaves each province with one party representing their interests and all other political views shut out from any discussion.











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