I don't know that I'm comparing Canada to the US so much as pointing out that an elected Senate can, and I believe in most cases does, have a very significant role in the creation/passing of legislation. I'm not sure what the point would be to create an empowered Senate with elected officials, and then encourage them to play a very limited role in government. May as well stick with what we've got if that's the goal.
If the Senators are elected, I don't see how they'd be independent. I'm sure they'd all hook up with the existing parties and exist as a secondary House of Commons, complete with the 5 major parties... and why not? Canadians are well represented by the 5 parties. Honestly to create independent, impartial authorities to sit in the Senate you'd have to appoint them. Election politics creates election-oriented politicians no matter how you slice it. I just see it as way more politics than Canada needs... our population/economy is not growing at such a staggering rate that our political insititutions are outdated, especially when compared to other liberal-democracies.
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