Is Senate abolition easier than reform? Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall thinks so

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has been a very vocal supporter of Senate abolition since the Auditor General's expense report was released on Tuesday. His preference is to reform it. But in an interview with Rosemary Barton for CBC Radio's The House, he says it would be easier to just get rid of it. 

"I would argue that as tough as abolishing would be, it might even be harder to reform it in the proper way because if we just simply start electing senators, we couldn't support that in the West," he said.

• Brad Wall repeats call for Senate abolition
• NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he'll seek mandate for Senate abolition

"It would make permanent what we think is an imbalance in terms of the number of seats in the Senate for Western Canada."

To abolish or reform? That's the question many premiers having been mulling over in the wake of the report. Other than Wall, only one other premier has come out and support the idea of abolition: Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger.

Wall initially said he wouldn't actively campaign for abolition, but he told Barton that he is going to bring it up at the annual premiers meeting in St. John's in July.

"We're going to encourage other premiers to consider the position...everyone knows our position," he said.

"We just hope others come to the same realization."

Canada 'way beyond' Senate

Wall is insistent that the country would function just fine without its senators, an archaic model he says Canada should be "way beyond" in 2015. 

"I can't think of any examples where people of the province of Saskatchewan or other Western provinces would say, 'well, thank goodness we have the Senate to save us'."