Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here to address you in the chair this afternoon, sir. I am pleased to take part in the debate on Motion No. 221 put forward by the hon. member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup.
As I travel throughout my constituency and performing my duties as a member in other parts of the country, I am amazed at how distrustful and concerned people are at the way politics are being carried out. One of the popular topics of discussion is integrity. People are determined that their leaders and their institutions be responsive to their needs and to their wishes. Presently Canadians are very distrustful. There is an air of cynicism that I find disheartening. People put little or no faith in the promises of politicians or the activities of political institutions.
Every time an election comes around so do the politicians, making all kinds of promises that are sure to be broken when no longer convenient. That is the attitude that people express. People want their leaders and their political institutions to represent themselves accurately and to be accountable to the people they represent.
That is why the debate today on the Senate is such an important one. The Senate is a political institution that has for far too long neglected the needs and the interests of Canadians. It is an institution that is accountable to political parties, nothing else and no one else. That must change. Our country needs servants of the people, not servants of political parties.
The solution to the Senate accountability problem is not Senate abolition. The solution is Senate reform. For this reason, the Reform Party and I cannot support Motion No. 221, although we understand the frustration that motivates the presentation of this motion.
Before I discuss the reason Reform cannot support this motion, let me give a brief background, if I may, about the Senate. Every large nation, such as Canada, with an uneven population distribution, must find a way to balance and effectively represent the interests of both the thinly populated and the heavily populated regions of the country in national decision making. To meet this challenge, the architects of Canada chose the classic federal system of government, that is, they established two levels of government, one national and the other provincial, with a division of powers between the two.
A democratic bicameral national Parliament was also formed in which the composition of the lower house, the House of Commons, is based on representation by population. The composition of the upper house, the Senate, is based on representation by region. Legislative proposals do not become law until they are approved by both houses.
The purpose of the Senate is to represent the regions of the country, especially those sparsely populated regions which have fewer seats in the House of Commons than the more heavily populated regions such as southern Ontario and southern Quebec. Therefore if the Senate were abolished there would be absolutely no way of safeguarding the interests of the thinly populated areas of the country. That is the major reason that we cannot support Motion No. 221.
I know the argument will be raised that the Senate does not represent the interests of the regions as it now stands anyway, so let us just abolish the Senate. I understand that frustration. The people who argue this point are absolutely correct about one thing: the status quo is not good enough.
The Senate exists today as an ineffective and unaccountable institution. It does not balance the interests of the thinly populated resource producing regions of the country such as the west, central and northern B.C., the north, Atlantic Canada, rural and northern Ontario and Quebec. It does not balance these areas with those heavily populated regions of southern Ontario and southern Quebec.
There are two reasons for the Senate's ineffectiveness and lack of accountability. First, the Senate is undemocratic. Its members are appointed by the Prime Minister and it has become the patronage heaven for old and tired politicians and political fundraisers. Senators are accountable to no one except their political party.
Second, the Senate is regionally unbalanced. That is, almost 50 per cent of senators come from the already more heavily populated regions of the country. How with our present Senate can the thinly populated areas of Canada like rural British Columbia have balanced representation with Ontario and Quebec? It is impossible.
We have seen over the years many examples where decisions have been made by Parliament that have weighed heavily in favour of central Canada. Last year the federal government secured parliamentary approval for Bill C-68 on universal gun registration and the distinct society clause for Quebec. In the 1980s the national energy program, the Meech Lake constitutional proposals, official languages legislation and the CF-18 decision all received parliamentary approval. These policies and decisions completely ignored
the interests and desires of many Canadians living in the thinly populated regions of Canada.
The Senate is an ineffective body. However, as I mentioned a moment ago, the solution to the Senate's ineffectiveness is not abolition. Abolishing the Senate would leave no means of balancing and effectively representing the interests of both the thinly populated and the heavily populated regions of the country in the national decision making process.
Most important, however, abolition of the Senate is not what Canadians want. I sent out a questionnaire in my riding earlier this year about the Senate. I asked people whether all future senators should be elected before being appointed by the Prime Minister. Eighty-four per cent of those who responded said yes. Let me read some of the comments which accompanied these responses.
A lady from Eagle Creek, British Columbia wrote: "The Senate should be much more regional in its make-up". A person from Clinton, British Columbia wrote: "The Senate has been stacked with people used to further the agenda of the government of the day, which has not always been good for the country".
A man from Williams Lake, British Columbia wrote: "The Senate has proven to be ineffective". Another person from Williams Lake wrote: "An elected Senate would mean that. The Senate vote would be a truer vote than the one taken by the Prime Minister's cronies".
A couple from the 106 Mile Ranch in British Columbia wrote: "Stop political patronage". A man from 100 Mile House, B.C., wrote: "I feel that an elected, more equal, more effective Senate would be a good thing".
The Reform Party of Canada has been listening to these voices and the voices of many other Canadians who want their political leaders and institutions to be more accountable, who want the Senate to truly represent regional interests and who want the Senate reformed, not abolished.
The Reform Party of Canada has developed a plan to help Canadians. This plan is detailed in our fresh start program. It is called a fresh start guarantee. This guarantee will give Canadians the tools to ensure that politicians and political institutions will be accountable to the Canadian people. These tools include recall, freer votes, referendums and citizens' initiatives. Most important, our fresh start guarantee will include a commitment to achieve Senate reform, not Senate abolition.
Senate reform means a triple-E Senate, a Senate that is elected with equal representation per province and with effective power to
represent regional interests. To my Liberal colleagues, the Prime Minister even supports the triple-E Senate reform. He said in his speech to the House of Commons in 1991: "To meet the hopes and dreams of those who live in the west and in the Atlantic, a reformed Senate is essential. It must be a Senate that is elected, effective and equal".