The Triple E Senate Of Canada :: essays research papers fc

The Triple E Senate of CanadaPublic interest in the Senate is currently stronger than it ever hasbeen. about everyone agrees that our present Senate is unsatisfactory.Political parties such as the New Democratic party want the outright abolitionof the Senate while others such as the Reform Party want to elect it. Since theSenate has not been considered an effective forum for regional representation-which was one of the reasons for its creation-many Canadians have wondered whatreforms would allow it to perform that role better. The objectives of Senatereform are based on one idea, that of enhancing the quality of regionalrepresentation of politicians within national political institutions. Throughthe implementation of a Triple E Senate (Equal, Effective, Elected), a federal dogma can be constructed into the national government and therefore providea check on the majority in the House of Commons.A major work on of second chambers is legislative review. This meansthat bills coming f rom the other house are examined, revised and sometimesdelayed. Unless regional representation is included, the legislative review be given does not examine the purpose of proposed legislation, but insteadattempts to improve it technically. In federal systems, the legislative reviewfunction of the Senate is only secondary to their role in providing forrepresentation for various parts of the country in the national legislature.Representation is selected in favour of the smaller regions, in contrast to thefirst chamber, where representation is eternally based on population. Thereforethe functions associated with the Senate are legislative review and therepresentation of the various regions on a different basis from the lower house.     The Fathers of Confederation to begin with intended for the Senate to playthe legislative review role. As sir John A. MacDonald said, the Senate was tohave "the sober second thought in legislation" and should not be "a m ere chamberfor registering the decrees of the Lower House". They also agreed on aparticular qualification of Senators, which was intended to help them act as acheck against the majority in the Lower House. This qualification has remainedunchanged since 1867, but its practical meaning has long been discarded.     The other major role meant for the Senate was to preserve what MacDonaldcalled " sectional interests". It is believed that this agreement aboutrepresentation in the Senate was the main factor that allowed the Canadianfederation to be formed. The Senate has functioned quite effectively as ahouse of legislative review up to the present time, but its intended role inregional representation has not been as effectively performed. seventy-five),the Senates ability to represent the regions of Canada has been weakened.