IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT
The Prime Minister has appointed a new, pro-reform senator to the upper house to support his platform to see that senators are elected rather than appointed. He appointed Bert Brown, who is 69, and for years has been one of the few voices fighting for reform in the senate.
This is clearly just another attempt by Harper to come off as a strong leader by fixing something that obviously isn’t broken. The idea of saying that everyone in the Senate should be elected has a nice, democratic ring to it, but the fact of the matter is that Stephen Harper is going to a lot of trouble for nothing.
Requiring that all senate members be elected is likely to make it easier for a majority government to pass bills (the turnover rate for Senate members will likely be higher, and the composition of the Senate will more closely resemble the party demographics in the commons), but for a minority it will ultimately change little.
Ultimately, the Canadian people don’t need another set of bothersome elections which raise apathy towards the democratic process in order to change a process that seems to be working fine as it is.