Mr. Speaker, we can all now understand the look of pain on the faces of parliamentary guides when they have to explain the Senate. It turns out they have been forced to use a manual written during the Mulroney era.
These poor guides have to spin some real whoppers. They have to say that the Senate is “non-partisan”. They are forced to praise the Senate by saying it does not suffer from “excessive media exposure”. The manual even disparages members of the elected House of Commons. It says the work of the House is inferior to that of the Senate. “In a multi-party group system, the voter is liable to be confused” and goes on to describe voters as donkeys.
It is time we revised this outdated manual. Let us free these poor guides so they can tell the truth about the corruption-plagued upper chamber, or even better, let us abolish the Senate and free all Canadians from this unelected, unaccountable relic of the 19th century.