After yesterday's Supreme Court ruling on the senate, there's really only one question left to answer: Do Canadians want an unelected senate that works or are they satisfied with the patronage trough they've got?Whining that senators are not elected may have made sense before Friday, but the SCC's ruling has now made things perfectly clear. This is the constitutional world Canadians live in and nothing is about to change that.Senate reform requires seven provinces with fifty percent of the population—the 7/50 formula—and Stephen Harper is not about to open the constitutional file to try and get it.As for a referendum, anyone who still thinks this might happen is dreaming in Technicolor. This would still have to be followed up with a constitutional amendment and, in any event, as Chantal Hebert argues, a referendum is too divisive for any prime minister to attempt. So it's time to move on.The good news is that we do have an option. Justin Trudeau's recent decision to free his Liberal senators is a major step toward genuine senate renewal.It positions senators to do what they do best: carry out serious policy studies; build up expertise; take a stand on principle; and scrutinize bills from the lower chamber.This is not only our best option for turning the senate into something useful, it is our only option. As I have argued elsewhere, I believe the Senate could provide real value to the legislative process in parliament, even though senators are not elected.With the partisan shackles lifted, the senate might even become the institution Sir John A. Macdonald claimed it should be.But freeing senators is only the first step, as Trudeau recognizes. To get real change, we also need the right kind of selection process for senators. Much turns on this. I see three basic conditions that such a process must meet.First, the process must be transparent and free from political interference. Otherwise senators will never acquire the legitimacy they need to take a stand on principle—and that will be crucial to a renewed role.Second, nominees must have the leadership, judgment, expertise and character to assume this new role. If the senate is to scrutinize legislation from the commons, it must be populated with highly respected and fair-minded individuals.Third, the selection panel also must be made up of qualified, non-partisan people to ensure the integrity of the nominations.Of course, the prime minister would still make the final decision on senators and, indeed, the panel could even provide a list from which the prime minister could choose. As long as the candidates were of high quality, this should not change the outcome.Some commentators have suggested that such a process would be incompatible with the SCC ruling. The court, they note, explicitly rejected the PM's right to appoint people who had been chosen through an election process.This is surely wrong. The court did not reject this option because it provides direction to the prime minister, but because it would change the character of the institution. Electing senators would create a far more activist and engaged senate, putting it in competition with the House of Commons.By contrast, an arm's length nomination process aimed at providing the prime minister with advice on the most worthy candidates for a house of sober second thought would be entirely consistent with the court's view of the senate.As University of Ottawa Law Professor Errol Mendes notes, “The Court's decision would not impede Justin Trudeau's screening process just as it would not see anything wrong with the present screening process for appointment of superior court judges.”This combination of a new nomination process and removal of senators from the partisan membership in party caucuses would be a powerful force for reshaping the culture of the senate.Senators would have to work hard to earn legitimacy by fulfilling their role. Over time they would develop the practices, tools and precedents to win public approval, rein in mavericks, and control excess.It is hard to see yesterday's ruling as anything other than a major victory for Trudeau's approach to senate renewal. He is the patron of this option and it is now the only real one we have.Although Trudeau has taken the first step by releasing his senators from the Liberal caucus, he has yet to tell us exactly how the arm's length nomination process would work.It is time to do so.Dr. Don Lenihan is Chair of the Ontario Open Government Engagement Team and Senior Associate at Canada's Public Policy Forum in Ottawa. He is an internationally recognized expert on democracy and public engagement, accountability and service delivery. Don's latest book, Rescuing Policy: The Case for Public Engagement is an introduction to the field of public engagement, a blueprint for change, and a sustained argument for the need to rethink the public policy process. The views expressed here are those of the columnist alone. Don can be reached at: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at: @DonLenihan