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Harper Promises Senate Reform

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So Stephen Harper today is pledging to move forward with reforming the Senate; namely making a Senate seat an elected position instead of an appointed one. For once, I agree with our dearest Prime Minster. However, I believe he should take it one step further.

I just did a little reading on the Senate and discovered that it has 105 seats. 105! Why so many? The U.S. has 10x the population we do and each state only elects two Senators – one junior, one senior. Considering Ontario, the most populous province in our fair nation, has only 2 million more people than New York City, why does it need 22 more senators than the entire state of New York? It boggles the mind.

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2008 Federal Election

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Well I must say that I’m pretty disappointed in the results of last night’s election. While the Election Prediction Project was predicting that the election would actually hurt the Conservatives, instead they came out stronger than they were going into it.  Now holding a commanding 143 seats, only 12 short of the majority Prime Minister Harper was looking for, I fear we’re in for a repeat of the past few years.

In fact, the only bright spot for me is that the NDP gained several seats. If you take a look at the CBC’s election map, the NDP painted large swaths of the country orange last night. While heartening, especially when you see seats that the NDP took from the Conservatives, it’s still a reality that the Conservatives are more powerful now than they have been in over a decade. The amalgamation of the majority of the right-wing vote has done them well, and I must say they’ve also done well courting centrists.

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