Jack Austin and Lowell Murray served notice Thursday of their intention to introduce a resolution to amend the Constitution to significantly increase the number of western seats, particularly for British Columbia.The central Canadian in me shudders at the thought of the J-Lo Senate proposal.
Under the proposal, B.C.'s Senate seats would double to 12, Alberta would get 10 and Manitoba and Saskatchewan would each get seven.
Don’t we already have a body that is elected and reflects representation by population? Isn’t it called, like… the House of Commons?
But that’s not the point.
You have to hand to Senator Jack, who has been a force in Canadian politics before Warren Kinsella could type type, he knows how set up a wedge issue.
What’s going on here is simple.
Harper has indicated he wants to move on Senate reform without amending the constitution. The weak link is that in BC, Senate reform without Senate redistribution to put more seats in BC is like putting Molson Excel on tap at a frosh party.
It’s more likely to cause a riot than selling the regular stuff.
Now Harper has a choice. Reform the Senate while continuing to disadvantage his Western base, or crack open the constitution and watch everything go to hell in Western breadbasket.
The sad part here?
My money is on the Mulroney protégé to crack open the Constitution.
Get ready to roll the dice.
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