NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in Jack Layton's old Danforth riding this morning, announces an NDP government, while we have homeless and poor people in Canada, will abolish the rigged, unelected, but extremely high pay and perks, Canadian Senate.
Oct 15 Political Headlines: Advance polls see 4.7 million voters, setting new record
Tue, 2019-10-15 14:16
#1
Oct 15 Political Headlines: Advance polls see 4.7 million voters, setting new record
Tue, 2019-10-15 20:15
#2
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Tue, 2019-10-15 15:05
#3
Sorry for being "that guy", but...link?
Tue, 2019-10-15 18:02
#4
Why do we need a new thread for every story you like? Surely this can go in many of the other similar threads?
Tue, 2019-10-15 20:29
#5
There is also the small matter that the Senate can't be abolished by an Act of Parliament, even presuming that Jagmeet Singh were in a position to push the bill through and that the Senate would vote to abolish itself. It is enshrined in the Constitution, so would require an Act of Parliemant and of seven legislatures in provinces containing at least 50% of the Canadian population - unless I have forgotten the basics.
Tue, 2019-10-15 21:12
#6
There is also the small matter that the Senate can't be abolished by an Act of Parliament, even presuming that Jagmeet Singh were in a position to push the bill through and that the Senate would vote to abolish itself. It is enshrined in the Constitution, so would require an Act of Parliemant and of seven legislatures in provinces containing at least 50% of the Canadian population - unless I have forgotten the basics.
We have had this argument on this site before. You are correct. I have argued that the Senate cannot be abolished as you say but it can be reformed dramatically and that is easy to do. This is much easier to accomplish.
There are some interesting options in how the reform could be managed including bringing underrepresented groups into a consultancy chamber.
It can be argued that this is effectively scrapping the senate as we know it - just replacing it with something that meets the very simple requirements of the Constitution.
Tue, 2019-10-15 21:33
#7
The Senate is an odd thing to focus on at this stage in the campaign, and the Senate abolition proposal has been in the NDP platform since the beginning-it was the only radical-sounding proposal allowed in the 2015 NDP campaign ads. It's also an issue that the electorate in Canada has never cared about, with the sole exception of the Alberta right, who wants to transform the Canadian Senate into a northern version of its US counterpart-a chamber of delay and rejection in which the most reactionary voices in politics would always have a veto on any legislation which gets through the House.
Tue, 2019-10-15 23:20
#8
There is some talk about setting aside a group of seats in Parliament proportional to the population for Indigenous Peoples only. So if they are 10% of the population then they need to get 10% of the seats (Keep the right-wing Liberals and Conservatives as far away as possible from this process as they will be sure to try and destroy it). This is for the House of Commons, instead of the unelected old boys club Senate, but worth mentioning, and more important, as Indigenous Peoples have been sold down the river since the settlers arrived.
Tue, 2019-10-15 23:47
#9
And contrary to the Mainstreet right-wing BS, there are lots and lots of millennials, who tired of the Justin Liberal nonsense over the past 4 years, and are turning out in droves to dump him and them.
Advance polls see 4.7 million voters, setting new record
https://election.ctvnews.ca/advance-polls-see-4-7-million-voters-setting-new-record-1.4639325
Tue, 2019-10-15 23:53
#10
In spite of all its many imperfections, Canadians are still a very privileged lot, compared to many other countries on the planet such as the USA, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, etc.
But our democracy is very precious, and as our national anthem states, we must stop and guard against our right-wing masters (Liberals and Conservatives), who have rigged both our political and economic systems against working people, and the less privileged in life.
Wed, 2019-10-16 01:42
#11
There is some talk about setting aside a group of seats in Parliament proportional to the population for Indigenous Peoples only. So if they are 10% of the population then they need to get 10% of the seats (Keep the right-wing Liberals and Conservatives as far away as possible from this process as they will be sure to try and destroy it). This is for the House of Commons, instead of the unelected old boys club Senate, but worth mentioning, and more important, as Indigenous Peoples have been sold down the river since the settlers arrived.
Creating seats based on geographic distribution that is designed to allow dominance to Indigenous nations can achieve the same thing without degrading the respect they deserve.
I think that based on jurisdiction it might be also possible to create an Indigenous province (in addition to Nunavut) that would include a great deal of devolved powers. Of course this is also challenged by the fact that Indigenous Nations are in very different circumstances from each other with respect to needs from the Federal Governemnt and also land claims.