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| Triple E Senate is a Intellectual and Undemocratic Abortion |
| 11.12.07 (2:38 pm) [edit] |
|
The name of Britain’s two houses, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, reveal one of the reasons why we have a senate in the first place. The purpose of having a House of Lords was to check and balance out the will of common people. One of the main purposes of the Canadian senate and the US senate, which were both modeled after the British system, was to do the same. The other purpose of the senate in both the US and Canada, of course, was to provide regional representation. Smaller states and provinces wanted their interests protected before agreeing to form a Federation. For example, the Southern States wanted to make sure the Northern States, were most Americans lived in and live now, would not be able to abolish slavery. Yes the US senate has done a lot of good over the years. Some believe that the regions need more say and an “equal” “effective” and “elected” senate is the best way of achieving a balance between population centers in Eastern Canada and the rest of us. The problem is two fold. First such an argument rests on a false contrast; seats in the House of Commons are supposed to be assigned on basis of population, but in actuality that is not the case. For example, PEI has a population of 135,851 and has 4 MPs and people in the riding of Oak Ridges Markham has a population of 169, 642 obviously only has 1 MP. In other words, a vote in Oak Ridges Markham has less the 5th the value of a vote cast in Charlottetown. Assuming that no government would ever dare take away seats from a particular province or region, the government would have to add a ton more seats to make it have way equal. If the government would commit to an MP for every 70,000 people the new numbers would break down as follows. Ontario would gain 67 seats, Quebec 27, BC 23, Alberta 19, and Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia 2 each. All total, a 142 seats should be added, most of those in Urban areas. Even then there would still be outliers. PEI, and the territories would still be over represented. The second reason is that comparing province to province is a perverse misnomer. It is comparing apples to oranges. The people living in Canada’s less populated provinces (hello again PEI) have a mechanism assure that regional concerns are addressed; it is called province jurisdiction and provincial representation. By the very nature of living in a province with a small population, the 135,851 people in PEI have plenty of ways of addressing regional concerns that are not available to, for example, the 169, 642 residents of Oak Ridges Markham. All in all, comparing province to province is a perverse misnomer. A province is no more or less than the people that make up that province. Giving the 135,851 in PEI the power to determine everything under provincial jurisdiction, provincial representation and 4 MPs well all the while given 169, 642 Oak Ridges Markham one MP is bad enough as it is. Giving the 135,851 people in PEI the same number of “effective” senators, as per the American Triple E Senate model, as 12.1 million Ontarians is beyond stupid and grossly undemocratic. Needless to say, if push comes to shove, abolishing the senate is far more preferable to senate Reform. No province has a second chamber, most abolished them, and they are doing just fine. Furthermore there are numerous examples of unicameral nation states. New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, South Korea and Portugal are all unicameral. |
posted by: elspeth (reply)
post date: 11.12.07 (3:42 pm)
If the senate were abolished and a Prime Minister had a msjority, it could become very dangerous,situation,no one to check the PM.
posted by: Annoyed Annon (reply)
post date: 11.12.07 (7:25 pm)
Actually, the House of Commons comes from the word "communes", NOT commons. A commune is an area akin to a riding or a county, and the purpose of the House of Commons was to give Parliament some sense of representation from England's counties. It was not meant as a house for commoners, as lords have at times held seats in the Commons as well.
Read a book for God's sake!
posted by: koby (reply)
post date: 11.13.07 (3:05 am)
No that would be shire as in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Gloucestershire. Representatives were called Knights of the Shire. “commune” literally means walled together and referred to the gathering of communities beyond walls for their own protection. Anyway, the origin of the name, “house of commons” drives not from the fact that Knights of the Shire and burgesses represented the “communes”, but rather from the fact although they sat apart that they gave their answers in common. So yes the purpose of the House of Lords was not to check the will of the common people. Its powers were such though that it was able to check the will of those who spoke with one voice, which over time came to include everyone of the voting public. That said, the purpose of the Canadian senate was most certainly to provide a check on the commoners and “commons” in the Canadian context most certainly does mean commoners. The purpose of the upper house was to provide an “elitist check”.