[#-3]

I actually think what would be ideal for both Canada and the US, to the extent that the Senate is meant to be a check on the legislators, and the House's are meant to legislate, is Sortation.

I think we would benefit a lot if seats were +/-8 year terms, and every few years a fraction of the senate was retired, and replaced by random draw of anyone who puts their name forward. I actually think it would be even better if you could have some algorithm that would ensure the traunch of senators was an equitable mix age/income/geographic/sex/race/professional background... but I don't have faith that we would successfully program that algorithm right now.

Either way I have no doubt in my mind that senators who felt random chance contributed to their appointment, and understood it was a time limited appointment would be a much more honest and sober in checking the legislators, then those who feel they owe something to a party or a segment of the electorate. The key problem is nobody who was elected would ever agree that they should be replaced by random draw, they feel they are special and talented, and admitting they could be replaced in this way would be far to damaging to their ego, while in reality those elected in a wave aren't really all that different from random selections, they just also have the ego/resources to spend a year knocking on doors talking about how great they are too.