Picking on the Senate is a battle not worth fighting.

Many years ago, when in high school, I took a course on Canadian Law and one aspect that has stayed with me, and in fact has become reinforced by continuing regional inequities due to bias brought upon us by "majority rule", is how a properly constructed Senate can help give the disenfranchised a voice.

Much has been said, especially in the last couple of years, that the Senate needs to be reformed or, better yet, eliminated. I for one am a firm believer that we need a second chamber that represents regional differences. While the current form and makeup is not ideal it is far better than not having a Senate.

Here in Ontario northerners especially have been victimized by legislation passed to sooth the core electorate in the Greater Toronto Area, typically to make those voters feel that serious efforts were being made to conserve and protect the environment. Examples include the Green Energy Act, the Far North Act and the Endangered Species Act. Other than the former, they were inexpensive with little negative effect on this core electorate. Yet none had much support or input from us in the north yet we are the ones most negatively affected.

Now if there had been an upper chamber in Ontario similar to the federal Senate with representation based on regions and not population it is very likely the voice of the north would have been heard and appropriate changes made. That is why the federal Senate was originally formed; to give a voice to the less populated areas of the country, and why such an institution is still needed.

The Constitution Act of 1867 established the Senate and designated four divisions, each with equal representation: Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and the West. And each Senator was to be a resident of the area being represented (and that is why Mike Duffy declared his principal residence as being his cottage in PEI, the province he is supposed to represent). Unfortunately the Canadian Senate is not the greatest due to flaws in its original design and as such still has too much influence based on population and how Senators are appointed.

The Federal Conservatives did try to make some improvements such as having Senators elected. But the Constitution Act of 1982 outlines the procedures that need to be followed to amend the Constitution including changes to the Senate. Any change requires approval by at least two-thirds of the provinces that have at least 50% of the population. As Ontario and Quebec currently have about 62% of the population obviously nothing will happen without approval by one or the other, and to get at least five other provinces to agree, does the term “herding cats” come to mind?

While I disagree with the generosity of senatorial expense accounts, people like Mike Duffy have been following the rules, mainly because they are so vague. But for politicians such as Thomas Mulcair to stand on the stump and say that that they can reform the Senate or even eliminate it needs cooperation between provinces we have not seen since 1867 and I dare say may never see again! So rather than beating to death something that is virtually impossible to change it would be nice if our politicians, and the media who follow them, instead concentrated on the real issues such as the economy, employment, education and health to name a few. And to put this in a form we can all relate to, so far over 20 million dollars have been spent on investigations into about 1 million dollars in questionable expense claims. Is that a good return on our tax dollars? I certainly don’t think so!