The Harper government’s plan to reform the Senate is unconstitu-tional and dangerous, former Liber-al leader Stephane Dion told a cam-pus audience Friday.

“[Bill C-7 is] the most dangerous bill under discussion now in the House of Commons.”

Dion, author of the Clarity Act and Opposition Leader between 2006-2008, spoke at the Atlantic Provinc-es Political Science Association con-ference at St. Thomas University on the weekend. Canadian democracy would be better served, he said, by reforming how MPs are elected for the House of Commons. He calls his proposal: P3: Proportional, Prefer-ential, Personalized.

The one-time political science professor said because Bill C-7 will create elected senators with a single nine-year term, the Senate will be-come too powerful. He said sena-tors won’t be afraid of making de-cisions because they don’t have to face re-election. That means the House of Commons will no longer have the final word on legislation.

Given the state of the global economy and climate change con-cerns, Dion said he doesn’t see the rush to reform the Senate.

“I don’t see why the Senate re-form would become something that should obsess us to create a new, mega-constitutional negotia-tion as we had in Charlottetown and Meech. I think the Senate we

have today is not perfect, but not harmful.”

Senators are now appointed on the advice of the prime minister but must retire at 75. Most legisla-tion is introduced in the House of Commons. The “chamber of sober second thought” rarely vetoes leg-islation, but often proposes minor changes.

Dion also addressed the unfair-ness in seat distribution. British Co-lumbia and Alberta have six seats

in the Senate; New Brunswick has 10. If senators were elected by their provinces and territories, senators from New Brunswick would be more powerful than senators from British Columbia and Alberta, he said.

“We need to clarify the role of Senate facing the House. We’ll need to balance the number of seats by provinces,” he said.

“All of this reform will request constitutional amendments.[...] We will need Parliament plus the

support of legislative assemblies representing at least 50 per cent of the population of these provinc-es. This is what our Constitution is saying.”

In September, the federal govern-ment announced plans to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to vet Bill C-7. Quebec has already indicated it will challenge the constitutionality of Senate reform legislation.

Instead of reforming the Senate, Dion proposes changing the way to

elect members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

“The electoral system that we have today [...] is a good one, but it has more problems than strengths. It is weakening Canada’s cohesion. It makes our country more adversarial between its regions than it would be the case if we had a better electoral system,” he said.

He proposes five members per district. The competition among those five MPs will create better territorial representation, he said.

As a majority vote will be diffi-cult to achieve with five MPs, vot-ers should rank parties on the bal-lots according to their preferences on which the seat distribution will be based.

“What it would give to Canada? Very likely that it would give stable coalitions shaped by national par-ties having support through the country.”

STU political science professor Thomas Bateman said Dion’s P3-proposal is well-worth discussing, but he isn’t sold.

“Mr. Dion is concerned about Bill C-7, relatively modest changes to the Senate of Canada, and he’s worried because it may produce consequences that we just can-not anticipate. So better not do it than make changes whose conse-quences we don’t know. I think the same logic can apply to reform he does propose. Because, do we re-ally know what consequences these new changes will have for Canadian politics?”

Former Liberal leader said reforming House of Commons could bring more national unity

Dion slams senate reformKerstin SchloteThe Aquinian

Stephane Dion delivered a lecture on democracy to STU students on Friday (Kaylee Moore/AQ)

Students with a Blue Cross medical plan through St. Thomas University are finally re-ceiving their normal coverage, as of Sept. 28. This means students can now pick up their prescriptions by showing their student ID.

Blue Cross offered to make the online data-base this year, meaning less work for STU. But it took them a week to make it fully functional, after STU sent them the list of students on Sept. 17. Reg Gallant, comptroller of financial services, says the month-long delay happened because of a communication gap.

“I’ve had a few students come in our of-fice and say they went to the drugstore, the drugstore didn’t know what they were talking about... Because they’re waiting to hear from Blue Cross, we’re waiting to hear from Blue Cross,” Gallant said.

Kelsey Nevers is a fifth-year honours stu-dent at STU. She’s one of several students who had issues with Blue Cross this year. She’s still waiting for her dental coverage.

“I went in two weeks after school started to pick up a prescription and they said ‘your Blue Cross is terminated’ and I said well I have

a card that says I paid for it,” Nevers said.Students were still covered as of Sept. 1, but

because Blue Cross didn’t complete the online database until last week, some students had to pay full price at the drugstore. Those who paid for medical services before the database was set up, can go to the Blue Cross office on Prospect Street to be reimbursed.

Gallant said they didn’t send the list until Sept. 17 because they were waiting to see what students needed to be taken off the list, for not having coverage. There were approxi-mately 80 students removed from the list.

“We were thinking this year it was a matter of two weeks, which became four. And that really isn’t acceptable.”

Gallant said next year they will start the pro-cess earlier. He also said it’s worth the risk to have a student use the Blue Cross coverage who hasn’t paid for it, than have students who have paid for coverage, not getting it.

“It should be our right to say this, on such and such a date, I got this card from them. I should be able to use it. And if not I should be notified when I can use it,” Nevers said.

Nevers said it went a lot smoother last year but she understands that it takes time for forms to get from one place to another.

Whitney NeilsonThe Aquinian

Online database took month to set up, students still waiting for dental coverage

Blue Cross coverage ready for students

Many students had trouble getting prescriptions through Blue Cross (Ashley Swinton/AQ)