Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but hear what the Liberals are saying about this. During the election campaign in 1993 the Prime Minister said that he was going to revise the Senate. He was going to reform it. The Prime Minister said, and I know this almost by heart, “Within two years of forming a government we will have an elected Senate”. Then he went on to say, and I have memorized this, “As Prime Minister I can make that happen”. It is a broken promise.
I want to respond to the member from Winnipeg who said that Reformers were against the Charlottetown accord, which shows somehow that we have waffled on it. The answer is no. We have many reasons to be against the Charlottetown accord and the one little carrot it gave us regarding the Senate was not one of those reasons. If that was all there was in the Charlottetown accord, of course we would have supported it.
The Senate that was proposed was not equal and its election would have been by the provinces. It was not to be by the people of the province, it was to be by the legislatures of the province, if they so chose. So it was not a truly elected Senate, nor was it an equal Senate. Furthermore, there were a number of inequities in the accord.
I think the real reason this government wants to keep the Senate is for a haven for its buddies when it wants to give them a bit of a reward. That is the way it looks. That is the perception of many people. I strongly think that we have to revise it. We have to redesign the way the Senate is selected.
Why not? I have no problem with the fact that I am elected and accountable to the people of Elk Island. If my constituents do not like what I am saying or what I am doing, they can get rid of me. In fact, with a Reform government, they would not have to wait until an election because we are in favour of more democratic control by the people. We say that our constituents could recall us between elections if they were really offended by what we were doing.
But with senators Canadians can never do anything. Senators are appointed by someone else. Canadians do not have any say in who gets appointed and there is never any accountability. There is no reason in the world for a senator to pay attention.
We certainly have that example right now in a senator from Alberta who is totally misrepresenting what the people of Alberta believe and want. At the same time this senator is collecting his salary he is working full time as the election campaign manager for the Conservatives. He is their Alberta campaign manager and he gets a full Senate salary while he is doing that. Our people find that offensive. There is no way we can ever get rid of him because he is appointed for life.
Mr. Speaker, I think my time is up. I could speak a long time on this subject. I am certainly not finished, but I am going to stop.