About the Canadian Committee for a Triple E Senate

The Canadian Committee for a Triple E Senate is not affiliated with any political party. We are a group of private citizens from across the country who believe Canada is worth building and is endangered by the centralization of power in the House of Commons and in the Prime Minister's Office.

We believe that a Triple E Senate is a practical and practicable response. We believe that alienation in Newfoundland is as much a hazard to a fair and united Canada as is alienation in Alberta, Saskatchewan or elsewhere. The causes of alienation must be removed.

What is a Triple E Senate?

A Triple E Senate is a Senate that is Elected, with Equal numbers from each province and which can Effectively check and balance the powers of the House of Commons and Prime Minister's Office.

The Senate of Canada in its existing form is an unelected house of government filled by appointments made entirely at the Prime Minister's sole discretion. Typically, political hacks and friends of the Prime Minister account for the bulk of the appointments to the Senate of Canada.

Why do we need a Triple E Senate?

Parliament needs balance.

Canada is a federal country with a bicameral legislature. In a federal country, sovereignty is divided between the federal and provincial (or state) levels of government. A bicameral legislature has two houses: a lower house (or commons) and an upper house (senate). Bicameral legislatures are a common feature of federal countries like Canada, the US, Australia and Germany.

To help preserve the division of powers that exists in a federal country, the upper house of a bicameral legislature serves to protect regional interests against central ones. This is important because in Canada, 60% of the population lives within a thin belt of land between Windsor, Ontario and the city of Québec, called the Windsor-Québec corridor, which represents 2.2% of the Canada total land area (Source: Natural Resources Canada).

Obviously there needs to be some regional balance in the central government to protect the less populous regions of the country from central domination. That is why the "equal" side of the equation is so important and why countries like the United States and Australia have equal numbers of senators from each state in their respective senates regardless of the population differences between states.

There is another important reason for a reformed Senate. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, as the old adage. The current corruption scandal rocking the federal government in Ottawa is a case in point. Since power corrupts, it must be divided and separated. While power is divided between the federal and provincial levels of government, it is not adequately separated within government. Too much power resides in the House of Commons and especially in the Prime Minister's Office.

A reformed Senate that is "effective" would act as a check and balance against the House of Commons. On paper the Senate of Canada is very powerful and could fulfill the is role but it is composed entirely of the political appointments of the Prime Minister and since the Senate is an appointed body--not an elected one--it lacks the democratic legitimacy to use its power effective. This is why we need an "elected" Senate.

If Senators were elected the Senate of Canada would have the democratic legitimacy to use its constitutional powers to the fullest and act as a true balance on the House of Commons.