Consensus Senate

One of the challenges of governing is seeing beyond a four year mandate.  The reality of any governing party is that they wish to receive a renewal of their mandate every four years.  This makes it difficult to put in place programs and policies that realistically have a much longer horizon to success.  Making positive change to greenhouse gas emissions is an excellent example.  Substantial reductions may take decades to achieve, so what are the pay offs to a government who implements programs within their four year mandate that will not see substantive results for ten years.

But couldn't an improved Senate fulfill some of this role?  Broad, overarching non-partisan objectives would guide the Senate in reviewing and either passing legislation or sending it back to Parliament with recommendations for revision.  Theoretically, this is the current role of Canada's Senate, but because appointment to the Senate has become a partisan exercise aimed at ensuring unfettered passage of government bills, the Senate has lost its capacity to be an agent of sober second thought.  Could this be solved by reducing the period of appointment  to something less than age 75 but significantly more than a four-year parliament lifecycle.  This would give senators a longer view of government priorities and objectives but also allow for ongoing revitalization of the Senate. This wouldn't preclude reappointment, but would limit the lifetime appointment scenario that currently exists.

As for selecting Senators, I would suggest that appointments be made by all-party consensus.  Representation on the consensus appointment committee would be equal across all parties with representation in the House of Commons.  Consideration could be given to representation from sitting Senators and exiting Senators, but the fundamental premise would require full consensus for all appointments.  All parties would be responsible for putting appointment recommendations forward and they would be free to choose how these recommendations are selected.  Requirements for a degree of regional, ethnic, aboriginal and gender representation could be mandated.

This would be a painful process initially, but anyone who has experience with consensus decision making knows that those involved in consensus building quickly gel and become very efficient.

Such an appointment process would allow our Senate to be populated with Canada's best and brightest thinkers - people who are not there at the pleasure of a particular party and therefore making decisions based on what is in the best long-term interest of Canada.