Senate Reform

Here is an interesting article on a proposal to reform the Canadian Senate. The suggestion is that the Senators all renounce party affiliation and form regional caucuses instead. I wonder how good that would be. The House of Commans is already becoming balkanized because of regional voting. Would there be a benefit if the Senate became a body of regional representation? What do you think?

(The link is to a google translated article from Devoir and is a bit "bumpy" in places, but still very readable. Google translator and Babelfish at Yahoo do amazing translations.)