Some recent commentary in The Chronicle has focused on the allocation of seats in the United States Senate, which is two per state regardless of population size.
Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has a very different system, which may be of interest to examine.
The Dominion of Canada was created in 1867 by the passage of the British North America Act by the British government. This granted internal self-rule to Canada, although not complete independence, with a bicameral parliament located in Ottawa, consisting of a House of Commons and a Senate.
Seats in the Commons are assigned to each province according to size of population and are chosen in public elections. This is very similar to our House of Representatives.
Senators, however, are appointed by the governor general, the de facto head of state, for the most part, in the physical absence of the sovereign, King Charles III. In accord with convention, precedent and expectation, although not by statute, the governor general accepts the advice of the prime minister, currently Mark Carney.
In stark contrast to the situation in our country, moreover, the 105 Canadian senators are not distributed equally to the 10 provinces and three territories.
The two largest provinces by far, Ontario and Quebec, which together comprise 61% of the national population of 41.4 million, receive 24 senators each, or 46% of the total. The remaining 57 senators are meted equally to the other provinces and territories, with some minor variations.
The smaller Canadian provinces thus are overrepresented and protected, but to nowhere near the extent as in this country. If Canada had the American system, the 16.1 million citizens of mighty Ontario would have the same senatorial representation as the 182,000 of tiny Prince Edward Island, a disproportion of 88 to 1.
The appointive nature of the Canadian Senate, of course, would never be appropriate in the United States. Its allocation of seats, however, is fairer than ours, and has not begot, as some may have predicted, a socialist dictatorship.
Incidentally, it is far better that we treat our Canadian friends and allies with respect rather than senselessly belittle them. We only make fools of ourselves.
Joseph Tipler
Centralia
