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On top of that, they volunteer at their church and the hospital in Stratford, Ont., Britton said.

When the Senate’s new application process came out, he thought the government was “saying that they want to be different” — more representative, and more open.

There’s a lot of people out here in the working class

“If there’s ever a time in history that someone like me could have a shot, it would be now,” he remembered thinking. “From what they picked, it doesn’t seem like it is.”

Scanlon, meanwhile, started his hot-dog business after working in shipping and receiving for the National Research Council, bookkeeping at a construction company and managing a fitness centre. He said he volunteers with food banks and works with the Royal Ottawa Hospital.

“There’s a lot of people out here in the working class,” he said.

“I’ve been selling hot dogs here for over 33 years. I meet every kind of person. White-collar, blue-collar, no collar at all. … They’re tired of hearing of the VIPs getting all the big jobs.”

The Senate should include people who really think about how decisions affect the working class, the poor, those on the streets and with mental health issues, Scanlon argued.

For his part, Britton wondered whether the new senators know “what that feeling is when you get up in the morning and you go, ‘I worked my butt off yesterday but there’s no guarantee I’ll have a job tomorrow.’ ”

Or, “What it’s like to tell your kid again, ‘No, we don’t have the money for that, we’ve got to save more.’ And knowing that you’re not able to save more.”

Senators’ salaries are just over $145,000. They usually stay in the upper chamber until mandatory retirement at age 75.

Scanlon said if he got into the Senate, he would try advocating for compulsory attendance and reducing the long summer break.

“I work all the time, 12 months of the year,” he said.

“I get paid for what I do. I do nothing, I get nothing. It should be the same with the Senate.”

National Post

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