My friend Sean, the former dean of blogging at seanincognito (editions passim and now RIP) occasionally finds events of the day that cause him to offer up an opinion or two. He passed on the view from Manitoba regarding the status of everyone's favourite home of the entitled class, the Canadian Senate.
His points and those of the article he quotes from are pretty valid and a good indication of perhaps where the Senate debate "elect or abolish" should go. So since the incognito portal is no more, we'll offer up our space, with a Guest blog courtesy of the Pundit of Portage and Main.
Dunno why it's so far escaped notice, but I thought it was not entirely insignificant for one of Canada's longest-serving premiers to call for the abolition of the senate:
Forget reform of Senate, just abolish it, Doer says
Mon Apr 10 2006
By Mia Rabson
MANITOBA Premier Gary Doer has jumped headfirst into the decades-old debate over Canada's Senate, calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to abolish Parliament's upper house.
Days after Harper's throne speech made vague references to his plan to reform the Senate, Doer said Harper should forget reforming it and just get rid of it.
"Our first position is to abolish the Senate," Doer told the Free Press in an interview late last week.
Doer said Manitoba had a senate once, but it only lasted for six years, was abolished in 1876 and Manitoba is none the worse for wear.
"Manitoba is a great example of how abolishing it worked," he said.
He noted the 1876 act eliminating the Manitoba senate was titled "An Act to Diminish the Expenses of the Legislature." Senators were paid more than $119,000 each in 2005.
In a December election promise, Harper said he planned to reform the Senate to establish a federal process to elect senators, rather than the current patronage appointment system in place now. He has yet to outline any specifics of that plan.
Doer said if that is the route Harper takes, Doer wants Manitoba, not Ottawa, to decide how senators from the keystone province will be elected.
He fears a national process will simply continue to shortchange the West, which has more than 30 per cent of Canada's population, but less than 23 per cent of the senators in Ottawa. In contrast, the Atlantic provinces have just over seven per cent of Canada's population, but almost 29 per cent of its Senate seats.
Manitoba has six Senate seats, almost double the number it would have on a per capita share.
Senate reform has long been discussed in Canada. The most fervent argument emerged in the 1980s, after the national energy crises, created by a federal government plan opposed by the West. The western provinces felt the plan only made it through the Senate because the West was so poorly represented, and began lobbying for what is known as the Triple-E Senate -- Elected, Equal and Effective.
Doer said an equal number of seats per province in the Senate is little more than a pipe dream, so he wants to focus more on how each province will elect its senators.
He is already preparing a plan to establish an all-party committee of the legislature which will tour the province to find out what Manitobans think.
I suppose no one really care what we mere stubble jumpers do or say, but I wonder if some ink stained wretch somewhere will mention it in passing....sean.
Well I'm not an ink stained wretch (occasionally eye strained from my blogging hours) but there you go, mentioned in passing. Now if only someone would read my blog eh~!
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