FACE TO FACE: Should Canada's Senate be reformed or eliminated?
Let's not elect the Senate. Let's not try to fix it or make it triple-E. Let's just dump it.
The Senate is a travesty, functioning only as a pay-off for perennial political friends of the government in power.
One hundred and five ex-hockey players, skiers, failed political candidates and other political partisans are appointed until they turn 75. Their primary mandate is to provide a "sober second look" at legislation passed by the people we've actually elected to run our country.
We pay them $132,000 per year, base salary. This doesn't include expenses, travel, a huge pension and paper clips.
As long as I've been watching, the Senate wouldn't know a sober second look from an inebriated leer.
Oh, wait, there was that slight brouhaha over the Meech Lake Accord and some whining about an abortion bill a long time ago but these legislative speed bumps only served to emphasize the Senate's lack of power and inclination to wield it.
Now, I'm sure many Senators take their positions as proof-readers of legislation seriously. Many, however, have attendance records that would make Ferris Bueller blush.
But the real reason the Senate is broken is not because Senators are bad people or that government is fundamentally corrupt; rather, it's broken because the Senate is a political body whose function is historically obsolete.
Senates were born of a time when fledgling democracies needed a House of Lords or Senate to oversee potentially hasty legislation proposed by politicians elected by the great unwashed. Elected riff-raff might want to tax the rich or something equally inappropriate so they needed an "upper house" to protect the interests of the gentry.
We no longer need this body. We now have other vehicles for sober second looks; pundits, pollsters, the internet, the media and, of course, throwing the bums out at the next election.
Canada's political decision-making process is timely, transparent and accountable. It allows government to proceed expeditiously through full public debate, law and electoral accountability.
Let's not ruin it by electing senators and ending up with a constipated decision-making system such as exists in the U.S.
No, let's just pass a constitutional amendment and send our senators home with a gold-plated lapel pin or a fetching Maple Leaf brooch.
Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.
