Senate reform made possible—and useful

The Senate expense scandal, and the government's malodorous handling of it, has given new life to shopworn nostrums for reforming or eliminating Canada's maligned upper chamber. All have flaws ranging from severe to fatal. Eliminating the Senate would eliminate sober second thought, that useful brake on the unfettered power of a majority government in the "dictatorship between elections" that is Canadian democracy. Electing the Senate would imbue the upper chamber with legitimacy, empowering it to act much as the U.S. Senate acts, with all the attendant complications for passing legislation. Creating an Equal Senate, with the same number of members from every province,...