—aging place, to say the least. At that time, the decision was made to do away with the notion of appointments for life and to drop the age to 75, which is far earlier needless to say.
The first finding is that this institution, which has absolutely no connection with our reality, is obsolete, archaic and totally devoid of any meaning to the people of Canada or Quebec, or any connection to their lives.
Second, this House ought to promote and defend the interests of the various regions of Canada. A noble objective, if ever there was one, but it became quickly apparent that far from defending the interests of the regions, the institution was far more what one might call an asset for the government by defending the interests of the party in power.
I am weighing my words carefully but that chamber has, over the years, for all intents and purposes, turned into a veritable den of patronage in that the nominations go to friends of the party, friends of the regime. They would never have gone as far as to appoint people of other political persuasions, which has meant that the other place has representatives of only two parties despite the fact that there are five parties represented in the House of Commons. In the upper chamber only the two parties that have divided the power ever since Confederation are represented, in other words the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives. They are surprisingly in favour of allocating supply to the upper chamber.
That chamber, which was intended to defend the regions, has finally come to defend the interests of the government far more than those of the regions. It is not representative of the full political spectrum represented here in the House of Commons.
Furthermore, I think it should be pointed out that this House, as I said, whose job it was to defend the regions, does not represent the full range of the political spectrum of the regions. For instance, there are New Democratic governments in western Canada. Are these governments represented in the upper chamber? Of course not. There is a sovereignist government in Quebec. Are the interests of the sovereignist government of the national assembly, with its sovereignist majority, represented in the other place? Of course not.
So the initial purpose for which the other chamber was created, which was to defend the interests of the regions, also no longer holds.
The other factor is that this chamber is a somewhat dusty institution that has accomplished the feat—if feat it be—of breaking the records for unpopularity and lack of credibility, even beating out lawyers and politicians according to the polls. That takes some doing.
Joking aside, we unfortunately have an image of the Senate as an institution where people go to live out their retirement years in peace, after loyal service to the party in power, and where there is really no incentive to do more than is necessary, where people can pursue their professions on the side thus building up their income.
There are, of course, extreme cases—former Senator Thompson comes to mind—who do serious damage to the Senate's credibility in the eyes of the public. The public, which should normally have faith in its political institutions, sees one of the Houses of Parliament as completely discredited and no longer has any faith in them at all.
This parliament, according to the advocates of federalism in this House and throughout Canada, is a model of democracy around the world. Yet one of the Houses that pass the laws of this country is appointed by the Prime Minister. What is the democratic prerogative of such an institution? Is the presence of the Senate in this parliament not a democratic disadvantage in this great country, which wants to be an example for the world as a whole?
There are few countries around the world that are real democracies and of those there are few around the world that may boast of having their Houses appointed by the Prime Minister, appointments that are basely and blatantly partisan.
We should look at the relevance of having such a House, which costs taxpayers a minimum of $50 million annually. We need only look at the situations of manifest suffering in a number of ridings, and even in all ridings in the country to various degrees. I am thinking of the riding of my colleague from Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, which has the highest rate of poverty in Canada.
How can his fellow citizens allow an institution that costs $50 million annually to continue to survive while they can barely make ends meet? These people experience anger, confusion and indignation.
We could say that in any self-respecting democracy the presence of two Houses is a guarantee of balance and against the appropriation of power by a single House.
The people in this non-elected House on the other side are simply there because of service rendered to the government opposite and therefore really do not need to take the interests of the public to heart. I say that with an aside because there are, needless to say, and we all know some of them, senators who give fully of themselves and work very hard.
The problem is not so much the individuals making up the institution, although for most of them, for the reasons they were appointed, it may in fact be a problem. But the institution itself, because of its nature, is the source of the problem.
How can this institution claim to constitute a balance aimed at preventing this House, elected by the people of Canada and Quebec, from gaining the upper hand? Every single provincial legislature has got rid of their legislative councils. The last one to do so, the Quebec National Assembly, abolished its legislative council in 1968, if I am not mistaken.
Could the supporters of the Senate dare to claim here in this House that the provincial legislatures and the Quebec National Assembly are less democratic institutions because they have abolished their legislative councils? Absolutely not. There is no connection whatsoever. We are very much aware that the best guarantee of democracy is the people's choice.
This choice translates into the presence here in the House of Commons, as well as in each of the provincial legislative assemblies and the Quebec National Assembly, of representatives who have been duly elected by their fellow citizens. That is the true guarantor of democracy, not the presence of a phoney second chamber which does nothing but serve the partisan interests of the government.
I submit once again that this House, which is duly elected by the people, must not lend any credibility whatsoever to the other chamber by voting supplies to it, which it will spend like crazy, while in each and every one of our ridings there are people who can scarcely make ends meet.
I therefore urge every one of my colleagues to oppose this motion aimed at granting supply to the Canadian Senate.