From the previous post (What’s Next?), the “best” Senate option was found to be limiting nominations to members of the Order of Canada (OC model) and to members of the provincial orders of merit. A very close second was the House of Elders model of the First Nations.

Based on these criteria, there are eight senators (out of 105 or 7.6%) who meet these criteria. These are:

Chretien Appointments: Serge Joyal

Martin Appointments: Roméo A. Dallaire, Sandra M. Lovelace Nicholas, Hugh Segal

Harper Appointments: Irving Russell Gerstein, Kelvin K. Ogilvie, Nancy Greene Raine, Pamela Wallin

NB: It is important to note that a member of the Order of Canada if convicted of a crime can have their membership to the Order revoked as illustrated here.

Based on the current Senate status, there are currently 9 vacancies (BC-1, Manitoba-2, Ontario-3, Quebec-1, Nova Scotia-2).

Based on the OC model and desirous to develop a First Nation’s “Elder” dimension to the Senate, my choices for the current nine vacancies are:

BC: There are 376 living members of the Order of Canada in BC. Further, there are around 300 members of the Order of BC. In terms of possible candidates for me, there is really only one that meets the ultimate vision of what a Senator should be for me. And that is (the Man in Motion) Rick Hansen: Companion of the Order of Canada, he, for me, is an example to follow and reflects the best in all of us.

Manitoba: There are some 118 Manitobans members of the Order of Canada. Further, there are some 180 members of the Order of Manitoba. My first candidate would be W. Yvon Dumont, Métis, who is a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba. The candidate for the second seat would be Raymond Poirier who is also a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba.

Ontario: There are over 1200 Ontarians who have been named to the Order of Canada and over a thousand members of the Order of Ontario. My first nominee would be Phil Fontaine of the Sagkeeng First Nation. Apparently Mr Fontaine lives in Ontario. The second would be Ms Chantal Hebert who is member of the Order of Canada. The third Ontario vacancy can be filled by Annette Verschuren who is a member of the Order of Canada.

Quebec: There are some 750 living Quebecois member of the Order of Canada and some 600 member de l’Ordre national du Quebec. For the one current vacancy in Quebec, I would suggest if be filled by Denise Verreault who is a member of Order of Canada.

Nova Scotia: For the vacancies here, I would suggest Dr Joan Glode of the Mi’kmaq, member of the Order of Canada and Joseph Shannon member of the Order of Canada.

Justin Trudeau took a big step and brought Senate reform back to the fore with an interesting Senate reform proposal supported by some decisive action – expulsion of all Liberal Senators from the Liberal caucus!

One can and should (in my humble opinion) applaud this initiative! Consider the reaction from the Canada West Foundation.

However, this proposal, although decisive, is far from inspirational.

As Jeff Jedras asks: “what’s next?”

In exploring an answer to this question, a design approach (see “Design, is it not merely politics?”) can be applied.

This design approach would evolve as follows:

Recognizing a need: Enough is written on this subject (Rampart against dictatorship, From rampart to rubble). There is definitely a need for Senate reform.

Defining the problem: Problem definition aims essentially at defining the criteria that describe the desired state that would meet our need. These criteria will then be used to evaluate alternative solutions to meeting the need.

The following table describes those criteria that for me best describe what would be the ideal Senate reform proposal.

Gathering information: Understanding both the options and the role of the Senate in the Canadian Parliamentary system will help in understanding the impact of different Senate options on our democracy.

A search of the web (Thanks Google!) reveals a number of senate reform options which include government, Wikipedia (Triple-E, reform history), journalistic (Hebert,  Coyne, Wherry, etc.) and political party sources (Conservative, NDP, Liberal, Green PEI).

Further, it is important to revise what is the role of the un-elected Senate with respect to the democratically elected House of Commons and underline its impact on. A number of sites can be cited: Munroe, Makarenko, Senate, etc.

Developing alternative solutions: Ever since the effort of the Reform Party to promote the triple-E Senate a number of different options have been proposed. These are:

Triple-E Senate – Equal, Elected, Effective. This option would require a constitutional amendment which would be quite difficult to obtain. Further, if obtained would only guarantee an increase in partisan politics and potentially leading to “dead-lock”.

Elected Senate – The current Conservative Senate reform proposal is to have senators elected at the provincial level and submitted as recommendation to the PM for nomination. It is expected that the Supreme Court will indicate that this option would require a constitutional amendment which would be quite difficult to obtain. However, if successful, this would most likely lead to increased partisan politics.

Senate Abolishment – This will undoubtedly require a constitutional amendment which would be difficult to obtain. Further, abolishment would remove the only real “rampart” to and “elected dictatorship”.

The Black Option – Conrad Black prepared a Senate reform proposal where the number of senators is increased to 180 which are distributed amongst appointed and elected nominations. Here again, this proposal would require a constitutional amendment which would be quite difficult to obtain. However, if successful, this would most likely nevertheless lead to increased partisan politics.

The Trudeau Option – This particular reform option underlines that the PM, any PM, has the power to create precedent by defining and applying a selection criteria above and beyond that what is found in the constitution. Will this option reduce partisanship? Possibly not, as has been highlighted by the reforming of the ousted Liberal Senators into the “Liberal Senate Caucus”. Further, this option does not inspire or add to a Canadian national myth.

House of Elders – Doug Cuthand in a column for The Star Phoenix outlined the using the First Nation’s Senate as a model for reform of Canadian Senate. This, in my opinion, is an excellent alternative to the current model and could be easily incorporated into say the Trudeau option. Considering that the Senate is to promote a regional point of view and that our First Nations are “A Mari Usque Ad Mare” populating the Senate with First Nations Elders could potentially bring the symbolism and spirit of “Turtle Island” to oversee and inspire our collective Nation’s future.

The OC Option – The OC option is defined by limiting nomination to the Senate to members of the Order of Canada who have demonstrated that they live by the motto: “Desiderantes meliorem patriam” (They desire a better country). These people come from all walks of life having excelled and marked their particular communities and disciplines. This particular option can also be easily incorporated into the Trudeau option.

Status Quo – Technically, doing nothing is still a possibility despite all of its limitations. The main advantage is that it would not require any more cost and no constitutional amendment.

Evaluation: The evaluation of the alternatives requires a set of criteria such as those defined in the problem definition. When I review these different options as a function of each criterion defined in the previous table, the result obtained is found the following table.

Based on these criteria, the OC option comes out as the best option in the weighted scale while it ties with the House of Elders option in the un-weighted evaluation. Both of these options as followed in the distance by the Trudeau option.

As a result, the answer to “What’s next?” can be summarized by the pursuit of defining and writing a national myth through combining the values of the First Nations with the pursuit of excellence in our communities.