Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
For it to work the way acottawa intends it, the applicants would have to be randomly drawn from a pool of volunteers (therefore, excluding anyone politically apathetic), then go through some further selection to make sure they're educated and reasonable, and then the 100 "chosen ones" would keep their jobs and stay where they are, but pocket a bonus for their service (a few tens of thousands would be fair, I guess) in exchange for some part-time work throughout the year.
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Who determines what is educated and reasonable? Once you start down this process you start watering down potential Senators, very much in line with what currently happens anyway. If you want to actually have this be representative then we're also looking to include low-income, disadvantaged, and anyone else who might want to have a say in Canada's politics (including, shocker, people you probably don't think should be in the Senate). The more you create hurdles and requirements the more it resembles our current Senate.
I'd imagine having to read up, educate oneself, and then voting on matters of national importance would need to be a full-time gig. I don't want government matters in the upper house to be determined by Joe as he sips a morning coffee before going to his
actual job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
On average it's guaranteed to be, since it'll change every year.
For the same reason that if you flip a penny a million times, the outcome will be quite representative (inevitably, roughly ~500k heads and ~500k tails).
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Sure, but this does not prevent extenuating circumstances from occasionally happening, which has been my point.