Ottawa

The reform party

Through Tim Harper, Progressive Consevative senator Lowell Murray explains his concerns with the current style of Senate reform.

Many otherwise productive senators of a certain age would likely do what he might have done, turn down a job that has only a nine-year lifespan, meaning he or she would have to search new work in their 50s. There would be the obvious tension of elected members working alongside appointed members, and, he says, the Senate becomes the elite body.

An Ontario senator would be elected province-wide and he or she would have a stronger mandate from more voters for a longer period of time than an MP from the province. Such province-wide votes would also be biased against northern and rural representatives and would favour candidates from large urban centres home to large media. It could also lead to U.S.-style gridlock.

Meanwhile, the Ontario government is thinking about joining a legal challenge.

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