It’s amazing how much can happen when Parliament takes a break. Pierre Poilievre is backtracking on his much maligned Fair Elections Act after months of criticism from within and without; the nation has been rocked by news of the allegations of abuse surrounding the temporary foreign work program; and only a few short weeks ago, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided in favour of retaining the Senate in its current form, that of unelected representatives.
That’s right, despite last year’s scandal the Supreme Court has declared that Parliament cannot alter the makeup of the Senate to introduce term limits or change the appointment process in order to make the Senate a body of elected representatives.
This is a crushing blow both to the government and the Canadian people, as Senate reform has been a goal of Stephen Harper long before he was our Prime Minister. Furthermore, a poll from June 2013 shows that 49 per cent of Canadians wanted Senate reform while 41 per cent were in favour of outright abolition of the upper chamber, suggesting that 90 per cent of Canadians were disappointed by the announcement.
A recent poll suggests that 90 per cent of Canadians want the Senate changed or abolished.
Though technically not impossible, reforming the Senate would be extremely difficult. As written out in the Canadian Constitution, an amendment of this magnitude requires a passing vote in both the House of Commons and the Senate, but must also pass a vote in seven of the 10 provincial legislatures, and those seven must represent at least 50 per cent of the Canadian population. You don’t need to be very politically aware to know how unlikely this is, as the provinces of our country rarely agree on anything, and have already taken up several positions across the board in regards to the issue.
Abolition of the Senate, long a part of the NDP platform and Harper’s fallback if reform was no longer an option, is even more outside the realm of possibility. The Supreme Court declared that the abolishment of the Senate would fall under the unanimity procedure for amending the Constitution.
That name, by the way, is completely accurate: abolishing the upper house would require unanimous votes to do so from the Senate itself (unlikely to vote itself out of existence) and all the provinces.
While some have suggested that the issue could be forced by the Prime Minister refusing to appoint additional senators once currently sitting members retire, this is no solution. Canadian senators serve until the age of 75, so even if we did this, the youngest Senator is not scheduled to retire until 2045, when I’ll be 60. Even barring the extreme length of time, this would further serve to undermine our current democratic process, leaving regions of the country underrepresented in the Senate.
The only party viewing this decision as a victory are the Liberals; Justin Trudeau seems now to be reaping the benefits of his daddy’s work in making the Constitution nearly impossible to amend. With the Conservative’s having lost hope in reforming the Senate, and the NDP’s plan of abolition relegated to the realms of impossibility, Trudeau now finds himself in the rare position of being the only leader with an option for Senate reform, even if it’s a terrible one. I have said it before: having independent senators chosen by an “impartial” committee only undermines our democracy by taking power from the people.
While our current system is not perfect, at least appointees are chosen by an elected official, and I’d rather leave the Senate as is than hand power for the selection of its members to more unelected officials.
With the senate, we’re left in an undeseriable situation that no one quite knows how to resolve.
