Abolish the Senate

They are given their position by both the Prime Minister and Governor General, HOWEVER, none of these people are chosen BY the people nor is OWR input taken into consideration. Either abolish the whole group OR reform the entire system so that ALL seats are filled with democratically elected officials (With and age cap & Term Limits).

I believe that it’s time to clean house get rid of the carpet baggers of senators ,they are unaccountable to the people of Canada . We need less government not more

I believe there cannot be a democracy with senators that were elected by one party. That is an unfair advantage over all the other parties, and the people that voted for them.

Senators make $174,000 annually, elected MPs make $185,800. When Mike Duffy retires he'll get a $47,000 pension despite never being elected.
With 105 seats in the red chamber at $174,000 each, that's $18,270,000 being wasted every year. That isn't even including bonuses for being a party leader.
$18 million could be spent far more productively.

NO

The senate is a terrible waste of our tax money for unelected officials to slow down the process that our elected officials have made. It’s archaic and needs to end today.

Abolish them!

We NEED to abolish the Senate immediately! They provide nothing but a simple “sober second thought” as put by our first Prime Minister John A Mconald. Another problem with the Senate is Patronage. Throughout the years the people have felt that the patronage currently going on has made the Senate useless. Just by simply staying loyal to a party or a person, you are rewarded with a high power and high paying job.
Since each Senate gets paid upwards of $160k a year while having around 91 seats reserved for senators means we are paying around $15m a year plus the extra $105dsm paid for it to operate the work they ares paid for is not worthy of that sort of pay, so whilst The Speaker of the Senate alone makes around 68.8 thousand a year just to tell people that they are aloud to talk or when to tell them to shut up, the average Canadian is struggling to make ends meet.
The Senate isn't very important, nor do we need it. The House of Commons does pretty much the same as the Senate, plus more.We already have people like Mayors and Premiers representing and overseeing our provinces and communities. Canada currently has 91 Senators, so that's 15 million dollars per year going towards the senators assuming they all make base salary. Since the senate was founded in 1867, we have spent approximately 2.31 billion dollars purely on their salaries up until now. This is a lot of money that could be spent towards more useful projects/issues, like our national debt or starving out Quebec.
If we keep the senate we are throwing money away that we could put into more useful stuff such as schools and health care or maybe even raise the minimum wage.

Absolutely. We need to get rid of this corrupt and undemocratic institution once and for all!

Sorry Senators, your reign of undemocratic terror is over. Unelected, unrepresentative, unrelating meddling in Canadian politics. Abolish the Senate.

i love this website

Senators are a waste of Canadian $$$. They serve no functional purpose, and even if they were to serve their duties faithfully, they would be doing so undemocratically.

Canada isn't a democracy but removing the unelected unaccountable senate would help us get there and the next step after that is to change our electoral system we need to get rid of FPTP and replace it with Proportional representation + remove the queen as head of state

Abolish Senate NOW ASAP!!

The fact that Senators aren't elected is actually good, it means they should be chosen based on their merit, abilities and judgment - unlike elected politicians who will get elected solely on their ability to convince people, often with empty promises. What we need is a solid Senate, appointed by a non-partisan board, to counterbalance the vacuity of most elected MPs.

Shut it down. The House can take care of it and we can do much more important things with the money saved. Too much damn politicians.

The Senate is blatantly undemocratic, and isn't beholden to the will of the people.

For an avg salary of over $150K/ yr and government pension, I fail to see the relevance with the work amount of work they perform and their compensation on top of being appointed, so basically no accountability

The senate is useless and a waste of money. Abolish the senate.

Because Senators are not elected but appointed , the Senate has become nothing more than a way to favour Party hacks. They enjoy all forms of perks which the ordinary Canadian citizen does not. It is absolutely wrong for an appointed body to have any influence on how our country is governed.

They are not elected and they are not accountable or trasparent.

Counter productive and blaintly terrible group of people to be giving orders they can't even follow themselves. What a joke. It's time for some make real change. It's time to get red of the Senate.

I heartily approve this, it's a waste of money on top of being undemocratic.

The Senate in Canada has never worked properly these are political hand-outs to those who have done favours for the standing Federal Government. The salaries and costs to run the senate are outrageous and the cost continues to rise under the Trudeau government from 90M in his first term to 114 M now. It is time to abolish the Senate and be more fiscally responsible to Canadian taxpayers money.

The senate is a massive waste of tax dollars abolish it and abolish the monarchy

I do not understand why we need the Senate. Procedure in the house of commons to pass a bill requires three readings. In between, there are committees, discussions and debates. If after all this, the elected members of the house of commons have still not got it right, then what are we paying them for. Its time to abolish the Senate, this archaic broken institution needs to go. I would also suggest that the entire budget for the Senate, once its gone, go to Health Care costs. This would be a better use of funds.

It is disgusting that we are still paying people hundreds of thousands of dollars to, at best do nothing at all, and at worse stall or block legislation of which is the will of the people.

Having an unelected chamber is dangerous for democracy, especially when that chamber has the ability to veto bills. The practice of vetoing bills is currently non-existent in the Senate, but that could very change for all we know. Two equally powerful chambers existing alongside one another has caused deadlocks in many countries. Better abolish now or risk having a non functioning government in the future.

Being as the provincial governments do not have an upper house and govern adequately and the vast majority of Canadians really only care about the House of Commons, the existence of an upper in Canada is utterly redundant

Not sure that it should be abolished outright, but there must be a mechanism for accountability. For example, Lynn Beyak, needs to be removed from the senate completely. She's an embarrassment, but Canadians have no way of effecting her removal.

Abolish this undemocratic waste of space and government dollars. The senate serves no purpose in our modern parliamentary government and the senators do not answer to the will of the people. The senate serves to function for itself and its cronies abolish this bloat of our legislative system.

too much partisan in the senate, people first and party second

It's 2020. We cannot call ourselves a democracy when senators who have power over law are not appointed democratically. As a result we are paying $157,000 dollars of taxpayer money a year to someone who is a residential school denier and made an illegal campaign donation to Trump. Canada needs to get up with the times and abolish the senate.

Senate should be elected

Senators should be elected and transparent, or abolished.

Abolish the Senate !

yes we should abolish the squabbling over paid senate committee altogether. it's a waste of time and money. money that can be better used elsewhere.

The senate is supposed to be a house of somber second thought, and the absence of the need to campaign potentially allows the members to focus on justice and what's best for Canada, and the world. This is a good idea. What isn't a good idea is for partisanship to enter the senate, and all senators should take a vow to eschew political membership as long as they serve. The senate should NOT be partisan and it should function without concern for local constituents. The senate could become a vibrant source of ideas and dialogue, but much needs to change for that to occur.

I would prefer to have an elected senate that wouldn't polarize the public even more.

Abolish the useless tax payers waste of money, I especially know of tax evading senators, get rid of all of them.

Abolish the Senate.

Seems pretty simple.

Save Canadian taxpayers millions..
Do not see they do much ever and their jobs can be done by others. We don't hear from them. Even with this covid 19 no word from them. And being old does not make you wise. I think Canadian tax payers should have a referendum on this issue. Only time you hear about Senators is when they do something
un lawful or bad misusing their expense accounts or not living where they claim.

Please abolish the senate - they serve no purpose in our current society- the “sober second thought” days are long behind these people, who collect large salaries and perks without providing any benefit to Canada

Senators are not elected and serve until retirement, yet they can defeat bills that the people have approved in the House of Commons. This is a terrible, undemocratic way of governance and must be abolished.

My tax dollars can not be continued to support Senate and Senators such like Lynn Beyek. I find it disgraceful that a woman with such vile views remains in senate on my dime. If she represents what senate is..please abolish this with these highly paid and unelected folk.
Thank you