Does Canada’s Senate need reforming? If so, how best to do so? Like any statutory body whose design dates back to the 19th century, the Senate has features that seem ill-suited to the 21st. But it would be a mistake to neglect history when shaping reforms. That would be as unhelpful as suggesting that all the Senate’s present practices be meticulously preserved. Understanding how and why the Senate was originally structured as it was holds within it the seeds of understanding how it can best be reformed now.
One of the ways in which colonial Canada moved away from a hierarchical quasi-dictatorship, where all legislators were appointed by the crown or their local agents, was through upper chambers in each colony that protected the aristocratic and landed gentry while the real spending and legislative power resided in the elected lower houses—legislatures, parliaments or assemblies. At the time of Confederation, it was therefore only natural that the provisions for...
Hugh Segal was a political strategist, senator from Ontario, and principal of Massey College. He wrote the author of The Right Balance: Canada’s Conservative Tradition, among other books.
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