OTTAWA -- The new batch of senators appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday seem about as upstanding as one could expect.

But what happens if -- or when -- one of them misbehaves? What if these "independent" senators get it in their heads that they know better than an elected and accountable government and start blocking key legislation?

Nothing will happen.

And that's a problem.

By insisting these and future senators act independently, voters lose the last slim means by which an electorate can hold senators to some account.

If you were angry, for example, about the misbehaviour of Mike Duffy or Pamela Wallin, you could take it out on Stephen Harper at the ballot box.

That gave Harper the motive to control or discipline members of his Senate caucus. And through the party whip, control of Senate budgets, and so on, he had some means by which to exercise this control.

It seems fair to say voters held Harper accountable for whatever moral failings and character flaws they may have perceived in those appointed by Harper to the Senate as members of his Conservative caucus.

But in the belief that partisanship is the big problem in the Senate, Trudeau is doing his utmost to make himself completely unaccountable for the behaviour or character of any senator.

He kicked all senators out of his parliamentary caucus last year. He then ceded the responsibility to appoint senators to what he describes as an independent, arms-length board.

And these new senators -- worthies though they may all be -- may do whatever they please until they retire at age 75.

Trudeau was right on this: The hyper-partisan approach of too many Conservative senators was a problem.

But it is not the biggest problem of the Senate. The big problem is that senators are unelected and unaccountable.

Trudeau's new system for appointing senators is just as opaque -- and arguably more so -- than what came before and his idea to make them all "independent" makes them even more unaccountable.