Canadians support Senate reform

A new poll was released showing that the majority of Canadians support Senate reform.  What type of reform? It isn't clear, but something better than the massively skewed representation there has been in place, but it also appears Canadians are in line with the Conservative view.

With the Liberals, you'll get the status quo, which only 20% support, or the NDP view where only 10% agree to have it abolished altogether.

What's interesting are those folks who support the Liberals also want to elect senators more than Conservatives (66% to 58%).

So here we have the Prime Minister making appointments recently to stack the Senate eventually to make some reforms to it.  So again, he's obviously drawing attention to the need for reform.  He's been doing that since he came into power.

Currently, I'm having interesting discussion with folks on Blogging Tories on the idea of having provincial legislatures making the choice on the people who should represent them in the Senate.  Apparently, in the past, U.S. senators were appointed by state legislatures.  A couple of conservative Americans I discussed this with online have said they should go back to state appointments because senators are now more privy and influenced by federal politics rather than truly representing their state.  Very interesting concept and something I could support.

What's also interesting is that Prime Minister Harper did leave the door open for provinces to fill their respective senate vacancies, but only Alberta had elected any.  I also believe it also included having premiers or provincial legislatures making the decision and recommending to the prime minister who they wanted. But no province took him up on the offer.

Regardless, with the Conservatives having a plurality in the Senate and the majority of Canadians supporting reform of some sort, I hope we can get something in place to make the Upper House a true and equal representation of each province in our country.