Canadians for an Elected Senate is an on-line project organized by two Alberta senators-elect, Betty Unger and Link Byfield, and assisted by the Edmonton-based nonprofit Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy.

Senators-elect Unger and Byfield ran in Alberta’s province-wide 2004 senatorial selection race. Because the Alberta Senate seats then vacant were later filled by unelected appointees (Mitchell, McCoy and Tardiff), it is unlikely either candidate will be appointed before their six-year elected mandate under the Senatorial Selection Act expires.

Both received the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005.

Betty Unger

Betty Unger grew up in Sexsmith, Alberta, graduated from the Misericordia School of Nursing in Edmonton, and while raising a family also founded and operated Medico Mobile Ltd., a successful and nationally-known, nursing services company. When she sold the company in 1993 it had offices in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer, employing doctors, office staff and over one hundred nurses. She remains active as a volunteer in numerous community and church organizations.

Interested and active in politics for years, Betty joined the Reform Party in1991 and was later elected to the national executive of the Canadian Alliance. She sought the Reform Party Senate nomination in 1998, and as a Canadian Alliance candidate in 2000, came close to defeating senior Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan in Edmonton West. In 2004 she ran again for the Senate, coming only 77 votes behind first-place finisher, Sen. Bert Brown. She was chosen unanimously to chair Alberta’s four-person caucus of senators-elect.

Thoughts on the Senate:

Most Canadians believe all politicians should be elected. Numerous polls, specific to electing senators and taken over several decades, have consistently supported this opinion. Further, most Canadians have little faith in the Senate, primarily because the archaic and flawed scheme of appointment confers illegitimacy, which prevents the senators from asserting their considerable authority in the Senate.

I’m proud to have been a strong participant in the cause for senate reform and elections since 1998.

In spite of great public support, it appears that our Canadian Prime Ministers and most present premiers are reluctant, or fear, taking even the smallest steps.

Fear-mongering about opening the constitution or causing “deadlock” in Parliament is a common tactic; used by the Liberals (who prefer the status quo and the accompanying power), the ND’s (abolitionists) and the media in general.

Prime Minister Harper is on record as wanting reform of Canada’s Upper House and has made history by being the first prime minister to appear as a witness, before a Senate committee.

He has also introduced two bills: the first would reduce the length of the term of senators, to eight years’ maximum instead of the present limit of age 75; the second would allow the government to “consult” with Canadians as to who they think the Prime Minister should appoint to represent them.

Unfortunately, most Canadian premiers have resisted implementing provincial legislation allowing for the election of senate candidates. This attitude is hard to understand, because the issue appears to be a “no-brainer” to most ordinary Canadians.

Two exceptions: Alberta passed such legislation in 1989 and Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan also introduced Senate Selection legislation, in 2008.

I believe that the only way to continue the process of Senate reform is through provincially mandated elections across the country.

Link Byfield

Link Byfield is an Alberta freelance writer and professional policy advocate who won consecutive first prizes at the Western Magazine Awards in the 1980s.

From 1985 to 2003 he served as editor and publisher of the acclaimed weekly newsmagazines Alberta Report and Western Report. They employed over 100 editorial, sales and administrative staff, and were a significant factor in the rise of the Senate reform movement in the 1980s.

In 2003, Link helped found the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, an advocacy organization for federal reform and responsible government.

In 2004, running as a nonpartisan candidate, he was voted a senator-elect by 239,000 Albertans.

Thoughts on the Senate:

For as long as I can remember, Canadians have suffered a sense of regional fragmentation and division. It’s as though nobody in the rest of the country – least of all in Parliament – knows or cares about the problems and potentials of our own particular province. In every province that’s how it feels.

There’s a reason for this. For almost a century and a half, Canadians have looked to national political parties to unite the country by working out the compromises necessary in a federal system. But the national parties don’t. They actually try to minimize differences and disagreements by pretending they don’t exist. And who can blame them? Whatever they say in one part of the country might cost them votes in another. So they say as little as possible.

This is why we need a Senate that is provincially elected -- a national house where regional differences are honestly debated and intelligently resolved.

Our provincial governments, from Newfoundland to British Columbia, can easily create such a Senate – and it’s high time they did. All it requires is a provincial law allowing the people of the province to choose who they want representing them in the Senate.

With a little encouragement from you, by the year 2017 they can give Canada a democratic Senate as a 150th birthday present.