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Essay: Is The Senate A Waste Of Institutional Space?

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Is the Senate simply a waste of institutional space? Or is it an opportunity to make a change that is long overdue? An expense scandal involving several senators in December of 2012 sparked a political debate with regards to the future of the Senate of Canada. Most will agree that the Senate is a thoroughly flawed institution, however the pros and cons of each proposition should be weighed before any action is taken. After presenting each of the proposed options regarding what decision is to be made about the future of the Senate, I will argue in favor of major reform.
The Senate is a part of the bicameral legislature that consists of two chambers, the upper chamber is the senate and the lower is the House of Commons. Ottawa is the only province …show more content…
Scott Hennig, of the Canadians Taxpayers Federation, makes the case for abolition. He argues that reform is too complicated a task to pass through opening the constitution unscathed (Hennig 2013). He also makes the point that we are nowhere near a consensus, about what the future of the Senate would look like. There are so many different opinions and proposals brought forward by Canadians that would make it nearly impossible to reach a unanimous decision. Hennig raises the point that the Senate has not done much other than agree with the House of Commons, with few exceptions such as rejecting the creation of the Old Age Pension Bill in 1926 (Hennig …show more content…
There is only room to move forward and any model that could be copied would be an improvement from what we currently have. History reveals that the Senate has been “nothing but a rubber stamp of approval on the House of Commons (Hennig 2013).” With few exceptions they have done nothing but agree with the decisions made by the House of Commons. This leaves us with the impression that there is no use for an upper

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