I thought today's announcement by the Harper Governmement to fix House of Commons election dates and limit Senators terms to eight years was interesting.
Like everyone and the kitchen sink, I have some opinions on Senate reform. There is no doubt that it badly needs to be refromed, but I'm just not convinced of the whole Triple-E idea. In my opinion, it lacks imagination and is too simplistic an unimaginative. I much more rather like to see a form of Proportional Representation or Party list based on HOC popular vote by province for Senate elections. I believe this would allow Canadians to keep the type of good people in the Senate who would never run in an election - people like Tommy Banks, Frank Maholvlich, Romeo Dallaire, and Thelma Chalifoux - I think Canadian politics would lose a lot of character if that happened. The last thing Ottawa needs is more politicians (maybe Senate by lottery would be a fun idea...? Senate duty?).
Now, keeping this in mind, I agree that term limits are a small step in the right direction for Canada's Upper House.
Also, I'll be gone eastward for the next week and a half and am looking forward to some time in Ottawa and Toronto. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning and sporatically blogging live and on location in central Canada.
Any suggestions on things I should do in my spare time?
I think I'm going to check out the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Oh yeah, GO OILERS! :-)
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
eastward, ho!
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6 comments:
Even though its run by Liberals, you should check out Queen's Park, especially if the Ontario Legislature is still in session... you'll never see such an unruly house in this country.
While you're in Ottawa, check out the newly revamped and relocated War Museum. It has amazing exhibits from start to finish and was the highlight of my first visit to our nation's capital last year. The detail and the amount of Canadian history present there is truly mindblowing.
In Ottawa - walk along the Rideau Canal (start at the other end so you end up by Parliament Hill), tour Parliament Hill and take some pics from the tower and sit for a while with the Unknown Soldier.
In Toronto - well there's a particular Monet at the Art Gallery I am fond of, we really enjoyed the CN Tower (glass floor freaky) and Of course HHOF! But I have some other suggestions too, talk a walk along the boardwalk (during the day) by the lake, and find a boat tour through the Islands from down there (mine cost me about 10.70 for about an hour - touring through the island, hearing some trivia and the view of TO skyline when you emerge from the Islands is impressive).
I heard that there is a casino shuttle from downtown TO out to Niagara falls Casino - at 18.00 a trip it would be great to see Niagara Falls at either night or day (theres no obligation to go to the casino but if it makes you feel better you could walk in and out again).
Enjoy! Theres loads to do in both places for very little.
in ottawa, take a short tour of the canals, visit the war museum for a few hours too. in Toronto, just walking down to youge from college to dundas, and go through the huge mall there is neat.
Heck, go visit the campaign headquarters for some leadership candidates.
KL
Chris Jones supports selecting the Governor-General by lottery. I lean towards that system too.
- Mustafa Hirji
When next I blog it will be my most contrarian article ever. I'm for the status quo on election dates and Senatorial appointments.
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