I thank you very much for the question.
We think the words “provincial political party” are extremely important, because that's the way the Alberta legislation was designed. Interestingly enough, the people who were designing it at the time wanted to prevent the Reform Party from running candidates, so they said it had to be a provincial political party, not realizing you could form a provincial political party with 1,500 signatures.
But the one thing that we believe would make the disconnect between the federal parties and the Senate is who would sign the nomination. I would not want anyone to believe that the Prime Minister is in lockstep with us on this opinion. In fact, he would probably prefer them to be elected federally.
I should make the statement here that in the mandate he has given me to speak to the provinces, I speak to the premiers and/or their representatives, but I do not speak for them. I also do not speak for the Prime Minister; I speak to him. There is a major distinction there, and I don't want anyone to think otherwise. In other words, I carry the message of Senate reform as I've done for 20 years.
I think the majority of Canadians are in favour of some kind of democratically reformed Senate. We are now down to 14 people: a willing Prime Minister who would appoint elected senators, and 13 premiers who will have a chance to decide whether they want to hold democratic elections or not.
The Prime Minister will make the final decision as to whether he will respect provincial political parties as representatives being elected to the Senate, which he already has in my case, and did in Stan Waters' case, who was the first elected senator. He will make that decision, and I don't want anyone to think I'm speaking for him.