"Jack Austin and Lowell Murray served notice Thursday of their intention to introduce a resolution to amend the Constitution to significantly increase the number of western seats, particularly for British Columbia. Under the proposal, B.C.'s Senate seats would double to 12, Alberta would get 10 and Manitoba and Saskatchewan would each get seven."Assuming this passes the Senate floor, I would say that the Tories would be the first ones gunning to approve such a measure. They could take all those new VACANT WESTERN seats and hold senatorial elections? Is there any doubt to which party most of those elections would go to? My thinking is that the opposition's strategy in all this is to tarnish the PM's developing pan-Canuck image he's been crafting. Quebec Nationalists in parliament will no doubt stand up against the measure unless Quebec receives more representation themselves, which will put the country into another two-solitudes moment where Harper will have to choose sides.
Here Come The Senators...
Opposition Shenanigans or true Senate reform?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Panic not.
ReplyDeleteHarper has probably already got a strategy to deal with this.
Maybe even an amendment to their bill that puts all seats up for election..including both the afore mentioned senators.
This proposal does nothing but add a second representation by population chamber to the parliament. It is totally unacceptabe.
ReplyDeleteEither the provinces of Canada are equal, or they are not. If the provinces of Canada are equal, they must be given equal representation in the upper house. If Ontario and Quebec continue to insist on supremacy, Alberta and the other Western provinces must separate.
This proposal also does nothing to address the historic imbalances and lack of representation for Western Canada that Ontario and Quebec have orchestrated ever since confederation.
The odd thing about this proposal is that the combined seat total for British Columbia and Alberta (22) would still be less than Quebec's (24), although according to the latest census data, their populations are roughly equal.