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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Take Away Senate Veto

The Canadian Senate should no longer have its veto right. The surprise vote on a bill calling on the government to act on climate change is great evidence why it should no longer have that right. Unelected officials should never ever have the right to completely reject proposals already passed by our MPs in the House of Commons. However, what they should be able to do is delay the passing of it, maybe send it back to a commission in the Commons. This would encourage further thought over bills that Senators don't really like. However, it should remain possible to pass a bill without the support of the Senate.

But alas, the kind of Senate reform I'm thinking of probably won't happen for a long time. The Globe says that taking away the Senate's veto would require reopening the Constitution, which no one wants to do. However it does agree with me that we should take away the undemocratic veto right of the upper house.
The Conservative senators were fully entitled to vote against the Climate Change Accountability Act on Tuesday, but the power of the Senate to reject Commons bills should be limited, in the same way that the British House of Lords is restrained.
Read more at the Globe and Mail.
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1 comment:

  1. I agree. The Senate has done its time and needs to go.

    ReplyDelete

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