[War] Canada: "Triple-E"

[Michael Downey]

"Triple-E"
Prime Minister R. Leon MacIntyre
Canada
9 March 2013
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Triple-E.' MacIntyre had spelled it out on a large sheet of paper and
laid it right in the middle of the coffee table in his office.
Dechard, Justice Minister Callvetii, Leader of the Government in the
Senate Reginald Joyce, and MacIntyre's Chief Policy Advisor Donna
Ingram all glanced down at the paper and back up at the PM.

"Equal, elected and effective," said MacIntyre. "It's got such a nice
ring to it, don't you think? 'Triple-E.' I spent fifteen minutes just
repeating that to myself on the drive from my house. 'Triple-E.' What
do you think Reg?"

"I think you'll be in for a long constitutional amendment fight,"
answered Senator Joyce. He seemed pretty calm, given that MacIntyre
had just declared open season on his post and the posts of every other
person in the Senate.

"Oh don't be like that, Reg," poked MacIntyre, swirling his tea. "You
and all your buddies have been marked men for years now. We're over a
decade into the 21st Century. How does that look, one of the guiding
lights of Western democracy having half of its Parliament made up of
unelected, appointed ex-drinking buddies of the last five prime
ministers?"

"I don't drink, Mr. Prime Minister," deadpanned Joyce.

"Believe me, you're missing out," replied MacIntyre, sipping his tea.

"Under Section 38 of the Constitution, an amendment to alter the
selection method of the Senate will require the consent of both the
House of Commons, the Senate itself, two-thirds of the provincial
legislatures, of which must contain 50% of the population, so that
automatically includes Ontario and Quebec," pointed out Dechard.

"You're mostly right," nodded the PM. "But I'm not just altering the
selection method of the Senate, I'm altering its composition. Which
under Section 41 requires ALL the provincial legislatures to approve.
Hence the 'equal.'" He laid down his tea before continuing.

"Because the Commons has its representation based upon population,
Ontario and Quebec dominate Parliament. We should know, because we got
our majority by sweeping up seats in both. That's why elections always
focus on them and the rest of the provinces are just used to pick up
cushion seats." That my have been an overly-cynical way of viewing it,
but it was not far from the truth.

"Barring the fact that having the Upper House of Parliament as an
unelected body is stupid and undemocratic, the current method of
allocating provincial senators is unfair and promotes regionalism in
politics. The Atlantic Provinces are grossly overrepresented, Ontario
and Quebec are underrepresented, and the West…. Well, they've always
bitched about Senate allocation. I want to follow what people from
both parties have been suggesting for years: six senators for each
province, and one for each territory. This is what we need to do to
balance the federation."
"What about the existing Senators?" asked Joyce. They were talking
about his job here.

"Well, you can all run for office once the amendments go through,"
offered MacIntyre with a shrug. "If not, don't worry, I'll see to it
everyone is pensioned off in good order."

"Sir, this might be a tough sell in Quebec and Ontario," noted Ingram.
"I mean, the Prairie Provinces and Newfoundland already have six
senators each, the territories already have one each. PEI will gain
two, so they'll be fine. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will lose four
each, but that won't be too hard to sell. Quebec and Ontario will
loose eighteen seats each."

"The worse idea anyone came up with was to base senate representation
along poplation lines," said MacIntyre. "Like I said, it's grossly out
of proportion. Ontario gets half a million people per senator, PEI
gets thirty thousands. Yes, they'll be losing seats. Who the hell
cares about that? This will give everyone, every province, the same
set number of seats regardless of their population or Commons seats.
What are the people of the province going to care? The voters? They
don't even pick their Senators for God's sake, /I/ do." He glanced
from face to face. "If it comes down to it, we'll just buy them off
with something. It's always worked before."

Now that was political cynicism at its best.

"Well, we shouldn't have a problem pushing it through the Commons, at
least," commented Dechard. "The Conservatives have been calling for
Senate reform for years. It was one of Harper's election promises,
though he never went through with it. The NDP…. Well, who cares what
they think?"

"Reg?" MacIntyre looked over at the Senator.

"Well, we'll look pretty stupid telling our constituents that we don't
want them to have any say in our affairs and that they're too dumb to
vote for us," shrugged the Senate Leader. "Who are we, an unelected
body, to dictate democracy to Canada?"

"Then we'll get ready," stated MacIntyre. "I'll have Legislative
Affairs draft up a bill and circulate it around the floor. We'll blitz
the provincial governments with pressure to endorse it and then go to
the House with a vote. Once that's done, it'll be up to the provinces
themselves."
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Actions:
1) The MacIntyre government endorses the Triple-E Senate Policy
2) Circulate a bill calling for an amendment to the Constitution to
make the Senate democratically elected, and redefine representation to
a set number of six senators for each province and one for each
territory; abolish the practice of giving provinces Senate seats based
on population.
3) Go to each individual provincial government and garner their
support for the bill. Once the necessary support is gathered, submit
the bill to the House for approval and then let the individual
provincial governments vote.