Brian Topp, running for leader of the Official Opposition, is venting his angst that the Senate could frustrate his agenda should he someday be named prime minister. He is vowing to immediately introduce a constitutional amendment, should he achieve his objective, to abolish the upper house.
There is probably a widespread consensus that the current prime minister's appointments of defeated Conservative Party candidates and sundry other political hacks is offensive to Canadians (note, I haven't seen any polling numbers of this). However, abolition is not going to happen. Topp, should he want to become a national leader, might be better to spend his time in the national spotlight more productively than tilting at windmills.
Topp is still a long way from becoming NDP leader and even further from becoming prime minister. However, should he be the beneficiary of every conceivable break in federal politics, win the leadership, sustain his party's momentum for 3-1/2 years, etc. etc, and be sworn as prime minister, he would still need unanimous consent of the provinces to abolish the Senate. That is never going to happen in any government's first term. Moreover, he would be most unlikely to get even the approval of Parliament to ask the provinces for the change; the Conservative dominated Senate would block the effort. I would be far more interested in hearing how Topp would advance an NDP agenda in the face of Senate opposition.
Topp's comments might be amusing were they part of a middle-school student's essay on how to fix Canadian politics. They are that juvenile and naive.
From someone aspiring to national we expect better.
