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As early as 1875, Canadians have nurtured the following thoughts: Why do we have a Senate, and can it please go away? This sentiment was most recently aroused by the cringe-worthy spectacle of confused Senators stumbling their way through a review of Canada’s legal cannabis regime.

So, to truly gauge if the Senate is a waste of everybody’s time, the National Post dove into a bunch of yellowed documents to see what they’ve actually done in their 150 year history. Below, an It’s A Wonderful Life-style guide to what Canada would look like if the Senate had never been born.

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We’d have a (pretty strict) abortion law

This is easily the number one effect that the Senate has had on modern Canadian life. Canada is alone among G7 nations for not having any restriction on abortion. Although you’d be very hard-pressed to find a physician willing to do it, it’s technically legal to euthanize and abort a fetus only hours before its birth. In the 1988 case R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court overturned Canada’s existing ban on abortion and called on the House of Commons to draft a revised law. The subsequent bill, put together by the government of Brian Mulroney, legalized abortions only in instances where the health of the mother was in danger. The Senate narrowly defeated the bill in a tie, however, and no parliament has since touched the issue.