Instead, the Senate's ludicrously lop-sided makeup makes it doubly farcical. Duffy's tiny province of Prince Edward Island, for example, has four Senate seats for what is really the population of a small city — one senator for every 36,570 islanders.
But British Columbia has one senator for every 780,000 residents — six seats for more than 4.6 million people. So each Prince Edward Islander gets 21 times — 21 times! — more representation in the Senate than each British Columbian.
It's as though we dug up a relic of an ancient civilization. The four maritime provinces together have only 5.4 per cent of Canada's population, but 30 seats in the Senate — while Ontario gets just 24 seats for 38.5 per cent of the population. Could the rites of the pharaohs be any more bizarre?
But British Columbia has one senator for every 780,000 residents — six seats for more than 4.6 million people. So each Prince Edward Islander gets 21 times — 21 times! — more representation in the Senate than each British Columbian.
It's as though we dug up a relic of an ancient civilization. The four maritime provinces together have only 5.4 per cent of Canada's population, but 30 seats in the Senate — while Ontario gets just 24 seats for 38.5 per cent of the population. Could the rites of the pharaohs be any more bizarre?