Placing Future Senate Reform in Context

Abstract

As the opening speaker at the Centre for Constitutional Studies’ March 2015 conference entitled “Time for Boldness on Senate Reform,” I took it as my mission not to advance any bold ideas of my own (though some found my comments on Senate numbers particularly bold). Rather, I tried to set the context for other participants’ bold ideas.  This paper follows a format similar to my talk. In the first part, I explain the current state of scholarly knowledge of second chambers and bicameralism. In the second part, I discuss the accepted orthodoxy that exists in Canada concerning Senate reform, namely that it must simultaneously address the method of selection, the numbers of seats each province gets, and the powers of the Senate.  In the third part, I discuss the real constraint on Senate reform which is sociological and not constitutional. I left it to my fellow panelists to explore the Supreme Court ruling in the reference on Senate reform.