your premise is false - it presumes that the Advisory Board, an independent and non-partisan body, is nominating partisans rather than the merit-based nominees it provides to a Prime Minister. In any case, accepting to your false premise, I've corrected your post - you're welcome!
Says who, the government? They are all federal appointees, including the so called provincial members. It may very well be a better system but we can never know because it is totally secret. The only reason it is secret is because the federal government wants it that way.
I don't think most provinces really care about the Senate, they know it for what it is, a totally federal creation.
The lipstick may be Couture but it is still a pig.