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munk-a • yesterday at 10:40 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

Ah, to clarify, Canada's upper house is basically a house of lords equivalent that we expect to be full of puffed up nobodies that get paid a too generous stipend to sit there and keep their mouths shut. Canada has one elected congress body (the one we all talk about) and then this vestigial senate which is generally expected to sit there and silently approve everything that passes through it.

It does technically have power, but it's like the King's power to veto UK legislation - he can do it precisely once and then he'll be stripped of the power.

Replies

traceroute66 • today at 10:26 AM

> but it's like the King's power to veto UK legislation

Honestly this old chestnut comes up time and time again.

As much as many people would love the King/Queen to put the politicians in their place sadly there are two problems.

First, the monarch's role is effectively only ceremonial these days. Even "The King's speech" during opening of parliament is actually a piece of paper written by the ruling-party of the day, the King just sits there in his fancy regalia and reads it verbatim.

Second, if you are referring to veto during the royal ascent process. As per Wikipedia, the King does not have pure veto power, his options are:

    - grant royal assent, thereby making the bill an act of Parliament.
    - delay the bill's assent through the use of reserve powers, thereby invoking a veto.
    - refuse royal assent on the advice of his or her ministers.
None of the above is a pure veto option. The nearest the King can get is delaying it.
JumpCrisscross • yesterday at 11:56 PM

> Canada has one elected congress body

Canadian MPs are electeds. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the Canadian Senate being referred to as an elected body—it’s irrelevant to the above.