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Canada’s largest province is set to argue that abolishing the Senate is tougher than the Harper government claims, and that provincial unanimity is required to make the constitutional change.

The arguments will be contained in a submission the Ontario government will make to the Supreme Court of Canada on Friday that sources say will include arguments that Senate abolition would require the consent of each of Canada’s 10 provinces, a step beyond what the Harper government has argued.

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In its submission to the top court, the federal government argued that the consent of seven provinces, representing at least half the country’s population — the so-called “7/50” rule — was all that was needed to kill the upper chamber. Pierre Poilievre, the new democratic reform minister, said that this section suggested that unanimity is not necessary.

In its court documents, the federal government argues it can even tweak the wording of the Constitution to remove references to the Senate as being part of Parliament, effectively killing it without the need for provincial consent.