Yes, you're correct in your assumption about Bill C-20. While I support it, and while the committee I chair supports the idea of Bill C-20 for electing senators, we're not in lockstep with the Prime Minister on the bill in terms of our suggestion of the possibility of two six-year terms for being re-elected.
We felt that the one single term was not popular with the existing Senate and that it would take away the power of the ballot box. If you have an election for one term and then you don't re-elect them, you lose any ability for the people of the province that elected them to come and say, “Hey, if you want to be re-elected, you need to listen carefully to what we want you to do and how we want you to represent us in the Senate.”
The other part of your question was about a constitutional requirement. We are looking at Senate reform now, having been through both Meech Lake and Charlottetown. We're looking at Senate reform as a staircase, and you don't go from the bottom to the top of the staircase in one step. You take steps.
What we're proposing is the first step; that is, to accept the fact that the Prime Minister is very much committed to democratically chosen senators. He is not constitutionally bound to the outcome, however. It would only be his political word that would bind him, and we're hoping to take advantage of that and let as many provinces elect senators as they want. Politically, he would be committed to accept the outcome of those elections.
We're not suggesting that he is constitutionally bound by an election. We're suggesting that this is an elective process, and politically, the tie would be pretty strong.