Amy Marlene Robichaud for Canada's Next Great Prime Minister

[BbGamehelpbB]

the military needs to get stronger we can get killed by a country with only the population fo 1,000,000

[Jimderkaisser]

Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. -Benito Mussolini-

[AmyMarlene]

Joseph,

The second phase of my plan is all about creating a meaningful dialogue that will result in successful constitutional reform for an elected Senate. I'm sorry if you didn't find that to be clear in my video.

[josephkwood]

How about, instead of supporting the continuation of our terribly undemocratic senate, you fight for an ELECTED senate?

[CuteAsButtons84]

Can I make a suggestion?

You should post the link to your official CNGPM page.

Since the judges won't be looking at youtube, you should probably direct all comments to the right site (which will hopefully be fixed soon).

It might also help send anyone who stumbles across this on youtube onto the site to actually vote for you.

[christovaughan]

Hello Amy, IT takes a lot of courage do to this. Just one question, under the Constitution Act of 82, Art. 38(1)(b) it states that to amend art. 44, it would take the support of the Senate, the house of commons, and 7 provinces as well as 50% of the voters of Canada. Keeping in mind that no former amendment to the Constitution Act of '82 has ever succeeded (Meech accord,Charlottetown accord), how would you propose to achieve this?? Once again, kudos!If you can answer, you have my vote

[AmyMarlene]

Hi, thanks for your Comments and encouragement.

Let me try to explain my reference to article 44 of the Constitution.

Article 44 reads:

"Subject to sections 41 and 42, Parliament may exclusively make laws amending the Constitution of Canada in relation to the executive government of Canada or the Senate and House of Commons."

All of the recommendations that I proposed as short term Senate Reform (Term limits, removal of age, property, wealth restrictions) can be added to the constitution

[AmyMarlene]

(con't) under section 44, because parliament has the authority to do it. We came very close to using article 44 to amend the constitution with bill S-4 in 2007. The main reason this did not occur is that Senator's were skeptical of what the next steps of reform would be. My plan clearly outlines the next steps for long term reform so I believe that parliament can come to a majority decision to implement the short term reforms that I have advocated.

[AmyMarlene]

As for the Senate reforms that have to do with seat allocation and how to select the Senators, you are quite correct that article 38 would have to be employed. I realize this is a daunting task to gain the mass support of Canadian's & the provincial governments. That is why I called for the creation of a Royal Commission to investigate the best election mechanisms & seat allocation for Senators. The Royal Commission will provide the provinces & Canadians with a platform to investigate & debate

[AmyMarlene]

new potential incarnations of the Senate. It will allow for political will to be mobilized & a consensus to be reached. A Royal Commission is mobile & public & removed from immediate partisan concerns so will be a much better forum for reaching consensus on Senate reform than any parliamentary committee.

I believe that the constitution can be amended in this way. 1982 was the last time our leaders really put all their cards on the table (so to speak) in a bid to make Canada's institutional

[AmyMarlene]

(con't) stronger. Since then we haven't really taken any serious or significant efforts to better our government to strengthen our democracy, some grumbles have been issued but no serious action has been taken. I'm proposing serious action, meaningful & extensive debate & consultation on Senate reform. I believe that leaders have a role to engage with the difficult & necessary tasks of ensuring that the Constitution reflects the reality of Canada. Our leaders haven't been willing to engage since

[AmyMarlene]

1982. Now is time. For a new Senate & for Canadian's voices to be heard anew in the Upper Chamber of parliament.

[sarahgood157]

Well done