Originally Posted by mr dave

can't comment for other Commonwealth nations but in Canada i think that would cause a major issue due to the members of the Senate being appointed until they hit 75.

if there's one thing that needs a bigger reform than the Governor General's role it's the Senate. no election, no public consideration, just a short list of names and a stamp of approval from the GG's office.

take the GG out of the picture and it's a short list written by AND approved by, the Prime Minister, with no real opportunity to question the selections. the current process allows final arbitration by the GG's office. as such most nominations are sensible but i wouldn't doubt for a minute that without an outside authority it would be packed with hard line cronies (not that it doesn't already happen).