Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Case For the Senate


I've heard the criticisms of the Canadian Senate but I always found them a little thin. So they're unelected, so what? The type of people you want in the Senate, the "best and brightest," with some exceptions are the type you wouldn't find running for office. Being unelected they're also less beholden to the party machine. And as the Globe's Simpson routinely points out, being unelected keeps them advisory while elected senators would have a legitimate claim to be legislative. No thanks.

Look in the House of Commons and you'll see lots of elected types you sure as hell would never want in the Senate.

This week the Senate made the case for keeping it as it is. The defence committee's unanimous report on Afghanistan spoke a truth we could never hope to hear in the lower house. Conservatives and Liberals came together to serve Canada by exposing the truth about "the mission" in Afghanistan. Their report was infinitely better than anything from the Commons including that faux debate.

"Sober second thought" it is, for this guy anyway.

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