Has it ever crossed your mind that the reason for which our Senate is predominantly LIberal is because over the last 70 years or so, we've elected predominantly Liberal governments?
The composition of our current Senate reflects the recent history of our country and does act as a check and balance to the HoC where a party who gains a majority basically gets a 4-year dictatorship in this country.
The Conservatives want Senate reform because they don't like the fact that our Senate serves as an "institutional memory" of why it is we as Canadians have made the decisions we made over the course of the years.
The Conservatives would love nothing more than to reduce that institutional memory to no longer than eight years so that two terms is all that would be required to reverse anything and everything that makes Canada, Canada.
Harper's hate-on for the Senate exists only because it serves as a reminder that Canada is and has always pretty much been 65% "liberal-minded".
You'll note that his proposed Senate reform Bill merely allows for a "popular consultation" and not for "direct election" of Senators. Whomever is selected still, ultimately needs to be appointed by the PM to the Senate to gain his or her seat.
There IS a reason Harper left himself that "wiggle room".
What do you think will happen, should the bill pass, when voters select someone of whom Harper does not approve? As he's shown in the past with Emerson (floor-crossing), Fortier (Senate appointment, unelected Minister), the promised vote to reverse same-sex marriage (which became a vote on whether to hold a vote as soon as he figured out he couldn't win), the quest for consensus on Afghanistan (after which we learned that "consensus" meant "I will delay the vote until such time as I can twist another party's arm to vote with me"), or his promise to "never" tax income trusts (after which we learned that in Harper-speak "never" means about 8 to 10 months), he'll simply ignore what he says he stands for as soon as it doesn't suit his purposes. He'll just plain not appoint them, that's all.