Mr. Speaker, as you know, there are five ways of amending the Constitution. Sometimes this requires the consent of all provinces, sometimes the 7-50 formula, consent of seven provinces representing 50% of the population. Sometimes it needs the consent of the federal government and the province concerned, as was the case when we changed the language-based school boards. Sometimes it requires not just the consent of the federal government but also that of the province concerned and the adjacent province, when boundaries are being changed.
To abolish the Senate of Canada would of course require a round of constitutional negotiations. The Senate is, in our opinion, an outmoded institution, one that has outlived its usefulness, an anachronism, with no justification for its existence. The Senate should be abolished, and steps taken to ensure that all those who make decisions for their peers, all those who represent the public, are elected representatives.