This is a crock of shit, and as good a reason as any I've seen not to let political science majors gain control of the country. This idea that Canadians are too stupid to make a simple decision about whether they want any legislative bodies other than elected ones constituted on an approximate representation by population basis mirrors what we saw in the aftermath of the Ontario MMP referendum, when Fair Vote representatives told any media outlet that would listen (which was, unfortunately, a great many) that the reason their favoured perversion of democracy had been rejected was that Elections Ontario hadn't done enough to extol its virtues. The minutiae of policy may not be within the sphere of competence of ordinary voters, but Canadians are at least as qualified to vote on Senate abolition as they are to elect MPs (consider this praise to be as damning in its faintness as you like).
This is more interesting. Would Dion really use his majority in the unelected Senate to block a referendum on the Senate? That would be pretty awful from an optics perspective. But during his tenure as Liberal leader, Dion has exhibited the affinity for shrewd optical moves that an antelope shows for a crocodile.
Nice to see that Harper's at least somewhat on board, though; we may get a chance to eliminate this anachronism yet.
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