Same Senate 107 years later

I recently found an interesting assessment of the Canadian Senate written in 1906 by Bob Edwards, editor of the Calgary Eye Opener, and thought how little has changed, except what senators are paid:

“As a home for decayed politicians run on purely benevolent lines at $2,500 per, the Senate could lay claim to being a success. Indeed, were they to throw off the mask and admit once and for all that the place is but a cabman’s shelter, a refuge for fallen political prune-eaters, a haven for the discredited, a home for pensioners who don’t need the money, an exhibition of ill-visaged waxworks and chamber of horrors, the country at large would think more of them. It is the hypocrisy, the bogus prestige and spirit of makebelieve which pervades the red chamber, making it redolent of pompous humbug and aristocratic mystery, that irritates the people so much.”

Sarah Carter, Edmonton