Mr. Byfield has his work cut out for him

From a CP story on Alberta's upcoming election to pick a senator-in-waiting:

....None of the mainstream Alberta parties is running candidates in the Senate elections, including Ralph Klein's Tories. The premier says his party - reported to have more than $4 million in its war chest for the provincial election - can't afford to run a Senate campaign.

"If the mainstream parties won't take it seriously, the voters won't take it seriously and it has the potential to be Ralph's version of a Gong Show," says Faron Ellis, who teaches political science at Lethbridge Community College.....

.....

So far the only candidates to come forward are Link Byfield, former editor of a defunct conservative newsmagazine, and Gerry Pyne, running under the banner of the right-wing Social Credit party. The right-wing Alberta Alliance party plans to nominate three candidates at an Oct. 16 nomination meeting in Red Deer.....

One of the things that I liked about Alberta/B.C. Report in the 1990s was its advocacy of a Triple-E Senate--one that is Elected, gives Equal representation to each province, and has Effective political powers.

In making the case for a Triple-E Senate, Ted Byfield compared the histories of the United States and Canada. He noted that political and economic power has been shared amongst the regions and states of the U.S., while Canada's Toronto-Montreal economic axis was able to treat the Maritimes and the West like glorified colonies. Ontario and Quebec were able to dominate the House of Commons and thus dominate the country.

Tired of catering to the political prejudices of the Liberal-loving Central Canadian media elite? Perhaps an institutional counter-balance is the answer.