Canadian Senate Reform Analysis

Many Canadians know the senate to be “the sober second thought” of the parliamentary system. The senate’s original purpose was to be a voice for regional interests, a representation of Canadian society, and to address legislative bills. Despite the fact, it has never successfully accomplished its original purposes. Many Canadians believe that the senate serves no real purpose, but this is because the senate has no dominant powers when it comes to performing its functions. In this essay, I argue that the Canadian senate appointment process of senators should be reformed. In doing so, I will be exploring the process as to which senators are appointed and senate representation, possible forms of reform, and why the senate is important for regional

Pellerin suggests that senators should be appointed by regional electoral assemblies drawn in equal parts from the legislatures of the constituent provinces. He goes onto say that this form of election would go a long way towards ensuring equality among the provinces, all while taking into consideration the disparity between regions (Pellerin 2005, 8). In the book, “A viable path to senate reform”, Matthew Mendelsohn believes that there should be an agreement on a constitutional amendment in order to reduce the senate’s legislative authority. If the amendment gained the consent of the provinces, there would be room for important changes, such as in the appointment process, and how to fairly distribute seats among provinces. In the journal article, “Placing future senate reform in context”, Bruce Hicks created what some have called “The Tim Hicks Amendment”, in where he promotes the idea of giving every province six senators. Another proposal was to take all the reserve territory and create a single province. This would ultimately give Aboriginals the privilege of having a financial and economic unit, allow them to make negotiations with other provinces, to be able to sit at federal meetings, and to have primary control over their own resources. These three proposed forms of reform are feasible, and each one offers its own viable solution to go about successfully reforming the senate. Initiative should be taken by the provinces and the Canadian government to come up with a solution to the problems that the senate constantly faces. Without reform, the senate cannot possibly be a voice for regional interests and an accurate representation of Canadian society. In order to understand why reform of the Canadian senate is important, it is also important to understand it is necessary for the Canadian senate to be a