On Canadian Senate Reform - (Again)

There would be no use of an upper house if it did not exercise, when it thought proper, the right of opposing or amending or postponing the legislation of the lower house.
Sir John A. MacDonald, Legislative Assembly, February 6, 1865 

A Senate or Upper House is only as strong as the people appointed to it. There has been no empire or hegemon in the history of the common era that has not had a Senate! The Senate performs the purpose of the house of second sober thought. The Oracle of Ottawa truly believes in this. John Kenneth Galbraith referred to this power as countervailing power. And the Oracle of Ottawa truly believes this to be true also.

Ceiling of the Canadian Senate Chamber

There have been nation states in recent modern history that had all the earmarks and makings of an empire, yet they did not survive intact for more than seventy years. The first example that comes to mind is the former Wiemar Republic, represented by the Weimar National Assembly. The powers that were at the time thought it be a great time to do away with old, ancient, and stupid things like a senate, while redesigning the system that would replace the imperial Prussian Empire. The Wiemar Republic lasted from 1919 to 1933. Most of you smarter readers don't need the Oracle of Ottawa to tell you what happened next in the absence of a House of Sober Second Thought!!

Roman Senate (Curia Julia) built 44BCE and still standing...

Since the inception of the 'Harper Government' many ancient and revered Canadian Institutions have been put under stress and some even have vanished. The Oracle of Ottawa is now going penniless and truly does not welcome the opportunity of having the "free choice" to buy a Mickey Mouse hat the next time that he visits a National Canadian Museum! (Take it, or else, is not a choice...) Only the likes of the hapless 'Harper Government' could save a crummy eleven million dollars while incurring damages of over one hundred million dollars and go on to brag about all the money that has been saved!

There have been many sneak communication (i.e. fart catcher) gambits to convince the people of Canada that the Senate should be abolished. Well good luck with that. The Founding Fathers of Canada built the system bulletproof. The abolishment of the Senate would require Constitutional Reform which would all but be impossible. The present system is the way it is for very good reasons. This system was, Thank God, even further protected and locked down and in by Prime Minister Trudeau, with the Repatriation of the Constitution in the 1980's. Perhaps he had a nightmare of something like the 'Harper Government' somehow coming to power in Canada.

Let us look at the facts, as they are, at present. Who is the leader of the Senate? Answer: Marjory LeBreton, if any one knows which high school she graduated from in the Peoples Republic of Nepean they should update her Wikipedia article.  Again, you only get the Senate that you appoint. Who has made all the appointments of the majority of those now in trouble? Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government'. What does this tell you? It tells the Oracle of Ottawa that the Conservative Party of Canada knows very few posh people. The proof of this is the wave of the utter shit quality of most all of the 'Harper Government' Senate appointments.

How the 'Harper Government' elected senate would work....

Again, the Senate of Canada as it is composed has been a very powerful body of good. There is a reason for an appointed senate. This was discussed long and hard by the Canadian Founding Fathers way back in 1865. The transcripts were recorded and are still extant. Perhaps the brain trust of the right wing of Canada should read them!

 The Senate of Canada as it has run in the past, and will no doubt continue long into the future...