Thomas Mulcair

In my opinion the Senate has no positive democratic purpose. We already have elected MP's so electing Senators is redundant. Senators are political bagmen and hacks appointed by the Prime Minister to ensure the political domination of the ruling Party. The institution is packed with self serving cronies whose personal privilege and grandiose entitlement has already been established. Abolish the Senate. If we truly need sober second thought on federal legislation we might consider establishing a review by the "Assembly of Provincial Premiers" who are already elected and accountable to represent provincial interests. I think this would be more effective and more democratic and the least expensive recourse.

Despite the fact that your observations about current state of Senate are right, idea of abolishing it and setting assembly of premiers is wrong. The basis of Senate is that it provides independent from big politics overview of all acts passed by House. Unfortunately, current system of choosing senators based on PM's opinion is still too much dependent on electoral needs of PM's party. We should set independent commision that would prepare recommendations about who should seat in Red Chamber. Create more financial accountibility measures and I believe that even NDPers would be satisfied.