As Prime Minister Series #2: The Senate

This ones a fairly easy one. I'd movedto an elected Senate, instead of our current system where the Prime Minister appoints a Senator. Personally, I think our Senate is almost useless, but it would be such a small thing to do and yet it would please Alberta.

Now, according to the constitution of Canada, changing the Senate to an elected Senate could be done by an act of government. The text about "summoning Senators" happens to read the same as the text about summoning MPs in the House of Commons. However, the constitution also says that Senators serve until age 75 unless they voluntarily resign.

Opening up the constitution is a recipie for national strife and disaster, so here's one of those areas where "custom" instead of law could apply. If the Senator's voluntarily resign on a four year period or so, you could probably satisfy most of Alberta demands for a triple-E senate without having to go through another Meech Lake fiasco.

Now for the Americans reading this, you might be interested to know that a lot of Canada's system is based on custom instead of law. Our constitution is vague on elections and doesn't mention the Prime Minister, so a custom of voluntarily resigning Senators isn't as crazy as it sounds.

Of course, if a Senator refused, there'd be nothing you could do.