Pros And Cons Of The Senate

While the senate was created along with the rest of the Canadian government and is written into the constitution, it is deeply flawed and must be reformed. Firstly, the senate does not equally represent each province according to current populations. Though originally seat distribution was based off populations, drastic changes in population since 1867 have not been accounted for. For example, as of 2014 New Brunswick has a population of 753,914 and holds ten seats, yet British Columbia has a population of 4.631 million and holds only 6 seats in the senate. This distribution in not representative of Canada and its provinces and should be changed to better represent each province’s population. The senate also has very loose requirements regarding who can become a senator.
If you are in the Prime Minister's favour, it is fairly easy to become a senator. Senators should be required to have a certain amount of government experience and should have to be appointed by election instead of the Prime Minister. This would result in a fairer senate that is more representative of the people instead of just the Prime Minister. Lastly, the senate should not be biased towards their old party. A senator is meant to provide independent “sober second thought” yet loyalty towards a previous party blocks this. As the senate has veto power, theoretically a senate made up of mostly liberals would block laws proposed by any other party. The senate should instead be composed of independent members to provide a more unbiased opinion from the senate as it is meant to. Overall, the senate is not equally represented by every province, has very loose requirements to become a part of, and is full of bias towards each senator's old party. For these reasons, the senate should be changed and improved to provide a more representative and equal opinion on Canada's lawmaking