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And, finally: “Amend the Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate.”

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This question is pure fantasy. To abolish one of the federal government’s two chambers, agreement would have to be voted in all provincial and territorial legislatures, in the House of Commons, and in the Senate itself.

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Every vote in every chamber would have to be unanimous.

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The Meech Lake accord died in 1990 because one Manitoba MLA, Elijah Harper, refused his consent on grounds that First Nations hadn’t been consulted.

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Smith and her party are, loosely speaking, the intellectual heirs of the western drive for a Triple-E Senate (equal, elected and effective).

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Advanced mainly by the Reform party, proponents argued that the only way to check the population dominance of Ontario and Quebec was to give regional senators real power to block or amend hostile legislation.

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One day back then, former Quebec premier Robert Bourassa agreed Quebec should have the same number of senators as all other provinces (with some concessions).

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I was standing right in front of the guy, shocked.

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But all that fell apart when the public voted down the Charlottetown Accord.

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Triple E is now a dead duck. Most Albertans, I suspect, don’t even know what it means.

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But it’s still surprising, given western conservative history, that Smith and the UCP would try to abolish the only body with even a shadow of regional representation.

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And why would that be? Without the Senate, she and her government would be the sole defenders of provincial rights, even stronger than they are today.

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The central provinces, with their massive population advantage in the Commons, would be even more content than before.

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Technically, Canada would no longer be a federation at all. Separatism could truly flourish in that world.

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Obviously, the Senate will still remain long after the Oct. 19 vote.

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For all its many flaws, it often stands for western provincial rights. Senators such as Doug Black, now retired, fought fiercely for changes in the hated Impact Assessment Act.

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I’ll vote no, don’t abolish the Senate. It’s all we have at this point.

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A huge majority of Albertans will probably disagree.

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Fortunately, nobody’s opinion means a thing.

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Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

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X and Bluesky: @DonBraid

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