How ironic! A Senate Committee has concluded that the government should stop production of the penny and after that to with draw it from circulation within a year. The penny should have been taken out of circulation long ago, but government works slowly even on the simple issues.
Neither the penny nor the Senate makes any sense (cents) having around. The penny costs more to produce than it is worth. The Senate costs a small fortune and no real value has ever been calculated as to the worth of the Senate. The term “not worth two cents” will still apply to the Senate since the cent soon won’t exist and therefore will have no value. It will be like “as phony as a two dollar bill.”
Regardless, it will be good to be rid of the useless penny. Now we can direct our attention on the future of the Senate. We should at least attempt to attach a real and tangible value that determines their worth.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper used to believe they should at least be elected. Then their existence would be based on the same principle (elected) as any politician, but would they be worth any more. It’s less expensive to appoint them. Maybe we should appoint all politicians and do away with elections. A revolving appointment committee would appoint one candidate out of twelve selected by the public based on their qualifications. Each candidate considered would be required to submit an extensive resume along with an endorsement of no less than 5000 signatures of people that person would be expected to represent. Their appointment would be for no more than a five-year term and could be terminated by the appointment committee if they failed to represent the will of the people or violated any rules associated with their appointment. Their termination would be final and binding. The successful candidates would be responsible for forming the government and committees from within their own ranks.
Please take all this with a grain of salt or a lump of coal, but it would make for an interesting debate. The party system is failing the people and reform is truly necessary. Try running as a conservative against an incumbent conservative MP and see how far that gets you. And the other parties aren’t much better. What happened to democracy?
