Preston Manning and Ted Morton Present Next Steps for Senate Reform - Time for Canadians to Be Heard

CALGARY, Jan. 22, 2014 /CNW/ - At a media conference today, Preston Manning together with Ted Morton, former Alberta finance minister and Senior Fellow at the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education, launched a campaign to engage Canadians in the debate on the direction of Senate reform.

www.reformorabolish.ca and www.reformorabolish.ca/francais/ created by the Manning Foundation, is a website that presents several options for Senate reform, and encourages Canadians to vote for their two top options.  The options for reform are well considered and come out of a 2013 Senate reform symposium hosted by the Manning Foundation in October.  At the symposium several viable options were presented by experts on the subject, including abolishing the Senate, status quo, as well as major or minor reforms.

Manning expressed frustration at the lack of change in the Senate over many years. "Canadians are justifiably angry that after decades when senate reform has so obviously been needed, that so little action has been taken.  The Prime Minister deserves credit for putting forward a Senate reform bill and seeking clarification of the legal issues around reform.  But in light of the recent scandals and scrutiny, where are the Senators advocating change from within? Apart from a few reform oriented Senators, the silence of the majority is deafening".

"I encourage Canadian to send a message that change and reform of the Senate are needed, and provide a sense of the direction that change should take.  Go to www.reformorabolish.ca, look at the options and vote. Then, those results will be released at the upcoming Manning Networking Conference in late February, and delivered to Pierre Poilievre, the Minister of State of Democratic Reform, for consideration by the government," concluded Manning today.

SOURCE: Manning Foundation for Democratic Education

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