Today may be a truly historic day in the United Kingdom, and indeed the Commonwealth as a whole.
That is because today, Members of Parliament in the House of Commons (lower chamber) of the United Kingdom voted in favour of major reform of the House of Lords, which is the upper chamber of their Parliament, similar to the Canadian Senate, and indeed many other upper chambers in former British colonies.
Right now, many parliaments based on the Westminster System have an elected lower chamber (House of Commons), and an appointed upper chamber (House of Lords, or Senate).
Now though, UK MPs have set in motion what looks to be the near or complete end to appointed members in the UK parliament.
MPs have voted to reform the House of Lords by demanding all members are elected, rather than appointed.
There was a majority of 113 in favour of this proposal.
They were also allowed to pick more than one preference… so a 2nd preference, for 80% elected, 20% appointed, also got a smaller majority in the voting.
These votes are not binding on Tony Blairs government, but it seems clear that the Government is taking this decision and using it to craft new law in the UK to reform the Upper Chamber.
So what does this mean for Canada? Well, I’m surprised the MSM here hasn’t picked up on this at all… if only for the many Royalists out there… it’s a fundamental change of the “rules” that Canadian government is still largely based on. I’m sure that once these changes are made in the UK, it will likely mean for an even greater push for an elected Senate in Canada as well. Whether it’s “Triple-E”, we’ll see.. but it seems that major change is coming soon to a Senate near You. And that, hopefully, is good for Canada as a whole.