Last week the Canadian Supreme Court wisely rejected the government’s plans for Senate reform in Reference Concerning Reform of the Senate. The Harper government had proposed a number of changes, including the popular election of senators, through a simple Act of Parliament without a constitutional amendment and this, said the Court, the government could not do. The government had even contemplated abolishing the Senate altogether, and all of this was entirely inconsistent with the scheme of government enacted in the British North America Act. The Senate is an integral part of the government, the Court held, and absent a constitutional…

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