Mr. Speaker, this year there will be at least eight seats vacant in the Senate. Canadians want an equal, effective and elected Senate.
The Liberal government has kept up the Tory tradition of using vacant Senate seats as a patronage appoint reward system to pay off Liberal political hacks. The Prime Minister has set a new pork barrel record by appointing 23 Liberal senators.
British Columbia is the most under represented province in the Senate, at least by five seats. B.C. has over 600,000 citizens per senator as compared to around 78,000 in New Brunswick, which has four more senators than B.C. The lack of equality in the Senate is outrageous.
The Calgary declaration calls for treating all citizens and provinces equally. The Liberals are denying the need for equality in the Senate. The Liberals are not allowing Canadians the right to choose their Senate representatives even though in 1990 the Prime Minister said the Liberal government—