Canadian Senate Reform Back on Legislative Agenda

Yesterday, the federal government reintroduced two Senate reform bills that would abolish the government's absolute control over the appointment of Senators and limit the terms.
The bills had been introduced during Parliament's last legislative session but died on the order paper when that session was prorogued.

The first bill, the Constitution Act, 2007 (Senate tenure), would limit the time Senators serve to a maximum of 8 years [background on the LEGISinfo site]. Right now, they can sit in the Upper House of the Canadian Parliament until they reach the age of 75.

The other bill, the Senate Appointment Consultations Act, calls for a referendum in a province or territory to allow electors to vote on potential nominees for vacant seats. The prime minister would then choose senators based on the results. [background on LEGISinfo].

One can track the progress of the bills on LEGISinfo, where one can find the text of the bill at various stages; government press releases and backgrounders; legislative summaries from the Library of Parliament; important speeches at second reading; votes; and coming into force data. There are also RSS feeds for tracking the progress of each bill.