Jagmeet Singh has promised to fulfill a long-standing NDP pledge to abolish the senate of Canada. According to Global News, Singh believes this policy would deliver better democratic representation to Canadians.
Despite the abolition of the senate being a traditional NDP rallying cry, this issue has received cross-party support as many Canadians feel the senate only adds expensive and often inconsequential delay to the passing of legislation.
In 2014, for example, $67.9 million in taxpayer dollars was spent on the salaries and bonuses of Senators.
Singh, however, believes that partisanship is the most grievous fault of the Senate. The NDP leader stated that senators represent the interests of the political parties, and not the Canadian public; especially those from smaller provinces.
In the 2015 election, Justin Trudeau promised to remedy partisanship in the Senate and invoked reforms to achieve this. Nevertheless, critics still consider the Senate to be a partisan body.
The NDP will propose to work with the provinces to remove what their party considers an undemocratic and costly institution.
