The
Senate of Canada ( ) is a component of the
Parliament of
Canada
, along with the sovereign (represented by the governor general) and the
House of Commons.
The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the
Governor General on the
advice of the
prime minister. Seats are assigned
on a regional basis, with each of the four major regions receiving
24 seats, and the remainder of the available seats being assigned
to smaller regions.
The four major regions are: Ontario
, Quebec
, the
Maritime provinces, and the
Western provinces.
The seats
for Newfoundland and
Labrador
, the Northwest Territories
, Yukon
, and
Nunavut
are assigned apart from these regional
divisions. Senators may serve until they reach the age of
75.
The Senate
is referred to as the "upper house" of
Parliament, and the House
of Commons is sometimes referred to as the "lower house". This does not, however,
imply that the Senate is more powerful than the House of Commons,
merely that its members and officers outrank the members and
officers of the House of Commons in the
order of precedence for the
purposes of protocol. Indeed, as a matter of practice and custom,
the Commons is by far the dominant chamber. Although the approval
of both houses is necessary for legislation, the Senate rarely
rejects
bills passed by the
directly elected Commons. Moreover, the
government is responsible solely to the
House of Commons; the
Prime
Minister of Canada and
Cabinet
stay in office only while they retain the confidence of the
Commons. The Senate does not exercise any such control. Although
legislation can normally be introduced in either house, the
majority of government bills originate in the House of Commons.
Under the
Constitution,
money bills must always originate in the
House of Commons.
Site
The Senate
and the House of Commons sit in separate chambers in the Centre Block
on Parliament Hill
, which is located in Ottawa
, Ontario.
The chamber in which the Senate sits is sometimes called the
red chamber, due to the red cloth that adorns the chamber
as well as the
throne. The red Senate Chamber
is lavishly decorated, in contrast with the more modest green
Commons Chamber.
This decorative scheme is inherited from the
British
Houses of
Parliament
, where the Lords chamber
is a lavish room with red benches, whereas the
Commons
chamber
is more sparsely decorated and is furnished in
green.
There are benches on two sides of the chamber, divided by a centre
aisle. The speaker's chair is at one end of the chamber; in front
of it is the clerk's table. Various clerks sit at the table, ready
to advise the speaker and the senators on procedure when necessary.
Members of the government sit on the benches on the speaker's
right, while members of the opposition occupy the benches on the
speaker's left (however, at present, due to the large number of
opposition senators, a number also occupy seats on the speaker's
right).
History
The Senate
came into existence in 1867, when the Parliament of
the United Kingdom
passed the British North America Act,
uniting the Province of Canada
(which was separated into Quebec and Ontario) with
Nova
Scotia
and New
Brunswick
into a
single federation, a Dominion called
Canada. The Canadian Parliament was based on the
Westminster model (that is, the model of
the Parliament of the United Kingdom).
The Senate was
intended to mirror the British House of Lords, in that it was meant to represent the social and
economic élite. Canada's first
prime minister, Sir
John A. Macdonald, described it as a body of
"sober second thought" that would curb the "democratic excesses" of
the elected House of Commons and provide regional representation.
As an upper house on the British parliamentary model, it was not
meant to be more than a revising body, or a brake on the House of
Commons. Therefore, it was deliberately made an appointed house,
since an elected Senate might prove too popular and too powerful,
and be able to block the will of the House of Commons.
Senators
The
Governor General
holds the power to appoint senators, although, in modern practice,
he or she makes appointments only on the advice of the
Prime Minister. Senators originally
held their
seats for life; however,
under the
British North
America Act, 1965 (now known as the Constitution Act, 1965),
members, save for those
appointed
prior to the change, may not sit in the Senate after reaching
the age of 75. Prime ministers normally choose members of their own
parties to be senators, though they sometimes nominate independents
or members of opposing parties. In practice, a large number of the
members of the Senate are ex-Cabinet
ministers, ex-provincial
premiers, and other eminent people.
Under the
constitution, each
province or territory is entitled to a specific number of Senate
seats.
The
constitution divides Canada into four areas, each with an equal
number of senators: 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 24 for the
maritime provinces (10 each for
Nova
Scotia and New
Brunswick, and 4 for
Prince Edward
Island
), and 24 for the western
provinces (6 each for Manitoba
, British
Columbia
, Saskatchewan
, and Alberta
).
Newfoundland
and Labrador, which became a province in 1949, is not assigned
to any division, and is represented by 6 senators, while the three
territories (the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and
Nunavut) are
allocated 1 senator each. Quebec senators are the only ones
to be assigned to specific districts within their province.
Historically, this was adopted to ensure that both French and
English-speaking senators from Quebec were represented
appropriately in the Senate.
Like most other upper-houses worldwide, the Canadian formula does
not use representation by population as a primary criterion for
member selection, since this is already done for the lower house.
Rather, the intent when the formula was struck was to achieve a
balance of regional interests and to provide a house of "sober
second thought" to check the power of the lower house when
necessary. Therefore, the largest province (Ontario) and two
Western provinces that were not populous at their accession to the
federation and that are within a region are currently
under-represented, while the maritimes are the opposite. For
example, British Columbia, with a current population of about four
million, has been historically entitled to 6 senators, while Nova
Scotia, with a current population of fewer than one million, has
been entitled to 10. Only Quebec currently has a share of senators
approximately proportional to its share of the total
population.
| Province or Territory |
Number of Senators |
Population per Senator (2006
census) |
| British Columbia |
6 |
685,581 |
| Alberta |
6 |
548,391 |
| Ontario |
24 |
506,678 |
| Quebec |
24 |
314,422 |
| Manitoba |
6 |
191,400 |
| Saskatchewan |
6 |
161,359 |
| Nova Scotia |
10 |
91,346 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
6 |
84,244 |
| New Brunswick |
10 |
72,999 |
| Northwest Territories |
1 |
41,464 |
| Prince Edward Island |
4 |
33,962 |
| Yukon |
1 |
30,372 |
| Nunavut |
1 |
29,474 |
| Total/Average |
105 |
301,075 |
A senator's seat automatically becomes vacant if he or she fails to
attend the Senate for two consecutive parliamentary sessions.
Furthermore, senators lose their seats if they are found guilty of
treason, an
indictable offence, or any "infamous
crime"; are declared
bankrupt or
insolvent; or cease to be qualified.
There exists a constitutional provision, Section 26 of the
Constitution Act, 1867, under which the Queen may approve the
appointment of four or eight extra senators, equally divided
amongst the four regions. Appointments are made by the monarch on
prime ministerial advice, exactly as with normal senatorial
appointments. This provision has been successfully used only once
in 1990, when Prime Minister
Brian
Mulroney sought to ensure the passage of a bill creating the
Goods and Services
Tax (GST). The appointment of eight additional senators allowed
a slight Tory majority. The only other attempt to use Section 26,
by Prime Minister
Alexander
Mackenzie in 1874, was denied by Queen
Victoria, on the advice of
the British Cabinet. This clause does not result in a permanent
increase in the number of Senate seats, however — instead, an
attrition process is applied by which
senators leaving office through normal means are not replaced until
their province has returned to its normal number of seats.
Since 1989, the voters of Alberta
have elected
"senators-in-waiting", or nominees for the province's Senate
seats. These elections, however, are not held pursuant to any
federal constitutional or legal provision; thus, the prime minister
is not bound to recommend the nominees for appointment. Only two
senators-in-waiting have actually been appointed to the Senate: The
first was
Stan Waters, who was appointed
in 1990 on the recommendation of Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney (he died in 1991); the second
was
Bert Brown, elected a
senator-in-waiting in 1998 and 2004, and appointed to the Senate in
2007 on the recommendation of Prime Minister
Stephen Harper.
In May 2008, the
government of Saskatchewan announced plans to hold similar
elections.
The annual salary of each senator, as of 2009, is
$130,400; members may receive additional
salaries in right of other offices they hold (for instance, the
Speakership).
Senators rank immediately above
Members of
Parliament in the
order
of precedence.
Qualifications
The Constitution Act, 1867 outlines the qualifications of senators.
Individuals must be both citizens of Canada and at least thirty
years of age to be eligible for appointment to the Senate. Senators
must also reside in the provinces or territories for which they are
appointed.
The Constitution Act, 1867, also sets property qualifications for
senators. A senator must possess land worth at least $4,000 in the
province for which he or she is appointed. Moreover, a senator must
own
real and
personal property worth at least $4,000
(adjusted for inflation this number could be estimated between
$175,000 and $200,000 in current dollars), above his or her debts
and liabilities. These property qualifications were originally
introduced to ensure that the Senate represented Canada's economic
and social élite. Now, however, the sum in question is far less
valuable due to the effects of inflation. Nevertheless, the
property qualification has never been abolished or amended, and
initially caused problems with the 1997 Senate appointment of
Sister
Peggy Butts, a
Catholic nun who had taken a vow of
poverty. (The situation was resolved when her order formally
transferred a small parcel of land to her name.)
The original Constitution of Canada did not explicitly bar women
from sitting as senators. However, until the end of the 1920s, only
men had been appointed to the body.
In 1927, five Canadian women ("The Famous Five") requested the
Supreme
Court of Canada
to determine whether females were eligible to
become senators. Specifically, they asked whether women were
considered "persons" under the British North America Act, 1867,
which provided: "The Governor General shall ... summon
qualified Persons to the Senate; and ... every Person so
summoned shall become and be a Member of the Senate and a Senator."
In
Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General) (commonly
known as the "
Persons Case"), the
Supreme Court unanimously held that women could not become
senators. The court based its decision on the grounds that the
framers of the Constitution did not foresee female senators, as
women did not participate in politics at the time; moreover, they
pointed to the constitution's use of the pronoun "he" when
referring to senators.
On appeal, however, the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council
(effectively Canada's highest court at the time)
ruled that women were indeed "persons" in the meaning of the
Constitution. Four months later, the government of Prime
Minister
William Lyon
Mackenzie King recommended for appointment Canada's first
female senator,
Cairine Wilson of
Ontario.
Officers
The presiding officer of the Senate, known as the speaker, is
appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime
minister. The speaker is assisted by a speaker
pro tempore
(or speaker for the time-being), who is elected by the Senate at
the beginning of each parliamentary session. If the speaker is
unable to attend, the speaker
pro tempore presides
instead. Furthermore, the
Parliament of Canada Act, passed in
1985, authorizes the speaker to appoint another senator to take his
or her place temporarily.
The speaker presides over sittings of the Senate and controls
debates by calling on members to speak. If a senator believes that
a rule (or standing order) has been breached, he or she may raise a
"point of order," on which the speaker makes a ruling. However, the
speaker's decisions are subject to appeal to the whole Senate. When
presiding, the speaker remains impartial, though he or she still
maintains membership in a political party. Unlike the speaker of
the House of Commons, the speaker of the Senate does not hold a
casting vote, but instead retains their right to vote in the same
manner as any other senator (see
Procedure below). The current
speaker of the Senate is
Noël A. Kinsella.
The member of the government responsible for steering legislation
through the Senate is
Leader of the Government
in the Senate. The leader is a senator selected by the prime
minister, and serves in Cabinet. The leader manages the schedule of
the Senate, and attempts to secure the opposition's support for the
government's legislative agenda. The
opposition equivalent is the
leader of the
opposition in the Senate, who is selected by his or her
counterpart in the House, the
leader of the opposition.
However, if the Official Opposition in the House is a different
party than the Official Opposition in the Senate (as was the case,
for example, from 1993 to 2003), then the Senate party chooses its
own leader.
Officers of the Senate who are not members include the clerk, the
deputy clerk, the law clerk, and several other clerks. These
officers advise the speaker and members on the rules and procedure
of the Senate. Another officer is the
usher of the
black rod, whose duties include the maintenance of order and
security within the Senate chamber. The usher of the black rod
bears a ceremonial black
ebony staff, from
which the title "black rod" arises. This position is roughly
analogous to that of sergeant-at-arms in the House of Commons, but
the usher's duties are more ceremonial in nature. The
responsibility for security and the infrastructure lie with the
Director General of Parliamentary Precinct Services.
Procedure
The throne and chair in the background
are used by the queen and her consort, or the governor general and
his or her spouse, respectively, during the opening of
Parliament.
The speaker of the Senate employs the chair in front.
The Senate Chamber is the site of the
opening of Parliament, a formal
ceremony held at the beginning of each new parliamentary session.
During the ceremony, the governor general, seated on the throne in
the Senate Chamber and in the presence of both Houses of
Parliament, delivers a speech outlining the government's agenda for
the upcoming parliamentary session. If the sovereign is present in
Canada, he or she may make the speech from the throne
instead.
Under the Rules of the Senate, the Senate sits Mondays to Fridays.
Sittings of the Senate are open to the public, and are transcribed
verbatim in the
Debates of the Senate. Unlike the House of
Commons, the Senate does not regularly broadcast its hearings,
although at times matters of particular interest have been
broadcast.
The
Constitution Act, 1867,
establishes a
quorum of 15 members (including
the member presiding) for the Senate. Any senator may request the
speaker to ascertain the presence of a quorum; if it does not
appear that one is present, the speaker orders bells to be rung, so
that other senators on the parliamentary precincts may come to the
chamber. If a quorum still does not appear, the speaker must
adjourn the Senate until the next sitting day.
During debates, the first senator to rise is entitled to make the
next speech. The speaker may settle disputes over which senator
rose first, but his or her decision may be altered by the Senate.
Motions must be moved by one senator and seconded by another before
debate may begin; some motions, however, are non-debatable.
Speeches may be made in either of Canada's official languages
(English or French). Members must address their speeches to the
other senators as a whole, using the phrase "honourable senators"
(
honorables sénateurs), without directly addressing an
individual senator. This is similar to the process in the British
House of Lords where all speeches and comments are addressed to "my
lords", as well as the Canadian House of Commons, where all
comments are addressed to the speaker of the house. The speaker
enforces the rules of the Senate during debate. Disregarding the
speaker's instructions is considered a severe breach of the rules
of the Senate.
No senator may speak more than once on the same question; however,
a senator who has moved a substantive motion, proposed an inquiry,
or sponsored a bill holds a right of reply that enables them to
speak again at the close of debate. In the case of a bill, this
right of reply can only be exercised at the second reading debate.
The Rules of the Senate prescribe time limits for speeches. The
limits depend on the nature of the motion, but are generally about
fifteen minutes. However, the leaders of the government and
opposition in the Senate are not subject to such time constraints.
Debate may be further restricted by the passage of "time
allocation" motions. Alternatively, the Senate may end debate more
quickly by passing a motion "for the previous question." If such a
motion carries, debate ends immediately, and the Senate proceeds to
vote. Debate may also end if no senator wishes to make any further
remarks.
When the debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote.
The Senate first votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts
the question, and members respond either "yea" (in favour of the
motion) or "nay" (against the motion). The presiding officer then
announces the result of the voice vote, but two or more senators
may challenge his or her assessment, thereby forcing a recorded
vote (known as a
division). First,
members in favour of the motion rise, so that the clerks may record
their names and votes. The same procedure is then repeated for
members who oppose the motion, and thereafter repeated again for
those who wish to abstain. In all cases, the speaker holds a vote
(which is not usually exercised) and votes first when a recorded
division is called; a tied vote results in the motion's failure. If
the number of members voting, including the presiding officer, does
not total 15, then a quorum is not present, and the vote is
invalid.
Committees
The Parliament of Canada uses committees for a variety of purposes.
Committees consider bills in detail, and can make amendments. Other
committees scrutinize various government agencies and
ministries.
The largest of the Senate committees is the Committee of the Whole,
which, as the name suggests, consists of all senators. The
Committee of the Whole meets in the Chamber of the Senate, but
proceeds under slightly modified rules of debate. (For example,
there is no limit on the number of speeches a member may make on a
particular motion.) The presiding officer is known as the chairman.
The Senate may resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole for a
number of purposes, including to consider legislation, or to hear
testimony from individuals. Nominees to be officers of Parliament
often appear before Committee of the Whole to answer questions with
respect to their qualifications prior to their appointment.
The Senate also has several standing committees, each of which has
responsibility for a particular area of government (for example,
finance or transport). These committees consider legislation and
conduct special studies on issues referred to them by the Senate,
and may hold hearings, collect evidence, and report their findings
to the Senate. Standing committees consist of between nine and
fifteen members each, and elect their own chairmen.
| Senate standing committees |
|
|
Special committees are appointed by the Senate on an ad hoc basis
to consider a particular issue. The number of members for a special
committee varies, but the partisan composition would roughly
reflect the strength of the parties in the whole Senate. These
committees have been struck to study bills (e.g., the Special
Senate Committee on Bill C-36 (the Anti-terrorism Act), 2001), or
particular issues of concern (e.g., the Special Senate Committee on
Illegal Drugs).
The
Special Senate Committee on Aging tabled its
final report
Canada`s Aging Population: Seizing the
Opportunity in the Senate April 21, 2009.
Other committees include joint committees, which include both
members of the House of Commons and senators. There are presently
two joint committees, the Standing Joint Committee on the Scrutiny
of Regulations, which considers delegated legislation, and the
Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament which advises
the two Speakers on the management of the Library. Parliament may
also establish Special Joint committees on an ad hoc basis to
consider issues of particular interest or importance.
Legislative functions
Although legislation may be introduced in either House, most bills
originate in the House of Commons. Because the Senate's schedule
for debate is more flexible than that of the House of Commons, the
government will sometimes introduce particularly complex
legislation in the Senate first. For the stages through which the
legislation passes in Parliament, see
Act of Parliament.
In conformity with the British model, the upper house is not
permitted to originate bills imposing taxes or appropriating public
funds.
Unlike in Britain but similar to the
United
States
, this restriction on the power of the Senate is not
merely a matter of convention, but is explicitly stated in the
Constitution Act, 1867. In addition, the House of Commons
may, in effect, override the Senate's refusal to approve an
amendment to the Canadian Constitution; however they must wait at
least 180 days before exercising this override. Other than these
two exceptions, the power of the two Houses of Parliament is
theoretically equal; the approval of each is necessary for a bill's
passage. In practice, however, the House of Commons is the dominant
chamber of Parliament, with the Senate very rarely exercising its
powers in a manner that opposes the will of the democratically
elected chamber.
The Senate tends to be less partisan and confrontational than the
House, and is more likely to come to a consensus on issues. It also
often has more opportunity to study proposed bills in detail either
as a whole or in committees. This careful review process is why the
Senate is still today called the chamber of "sober second thought",
though the term has a slightly different meaning than it did when
used by John A. Macdonald. The format of the Senate allows it to
make many small improvements to legislation before its final
reading. Although the Senate rarely vetoes bills from the House,
their minor changes are usually accepted by it.
The Senate at times is more active at reviewing, amending, and even
rejecting legislation. The late 1980s and early 1990s was one of
those periods. During this period the Senate opposed legislation on
issues such as the
1988
free trade bill with the U.S. (forcing the
Canadian federal election of
1988), and the
Goods
and Services Tax (GST).
In the 1990s, the Senate rejected four
pieces of legislation: a bill passed by the Commons restricting
abortion (C-43), a proposal to streamline
federal agencies (C-93), a bill to redevelop the Lester
B.
Pearson
airport (C-28), and a bill on profiting from authorship as
it relates to crime (C-220). The Senate also performs
investigative functions. In the 1960s, the Senate authored the
first Canadian reports on media concentration with the Special
Senate Subcommittee on Mass Media or the Davey Commission, since
"appointed senators would be better insulated from editorial
pressure brought by publishers"; this triggered the formation of
press councils. More recent investigations include the Kirby
Commissions on health care (as opposed to the
Romanow Commission) and mental health
care by Senator
Michael Kirby,
and the Final Report on the Canadian News Media in 2006.
Relationship with the Government
Unlike the House of Commons, the Senate has no effect in the
decision to end the term of the prime minister or of the
government. Only the Commons may force the prime minister to tender
his resignation, or to recommend the dissolution of Parliament and
issue of election writs, by passing a motion of no-confidence or by
withdrawing supply. Thus, the
Senate's oversight of the government is limited.
Most Cabinet ministers are from the House of Commons, rather than
the Senate. In particular, every prime minister has been a member
of the House of Commons since 1896, with the exception of
John Turner, who became prime minister when his
party elected him leader, but whose government was defeated in the
subsequent election. Typically, the Cabinet includes only one
senator: the leader of the government in the Senate. Occasionally,
when the governing party does not include any members from a
particular region, Senators are appointed to ministerial positions
in order to maintain regional balance in the Cabinet.
The most recent
example of this was on February 6, 2006, when Stephen Harper appointed Michael Fortier to serve as both a senator
representing the Montreal
region, where the minority government had no elected
representation, and the Cabinet position of minister of public
works and government services. Michael Fortier resigned his
Senate seat to run (unsuccessfully) for a House of Commons seat in
the
2008 general
election.
Senate reform
Reform of the upper house has been an issue for much of Canadian
history—and in fact predates Confederation in the Province of
Canada—with most plans for reform chiefly involving amending the
appointment process. Parliament first considered reform measures in
1874, and the Senate debated reforming itself in 1909.
There were minor changes in 1965 when a mandatory retirement age
for new senators was set at 75 years, and in 1982 when the Senate
was given a qualified veto over certain constitutional amendments.
While most senators hold their seat until the mandatory age,
Andy Thompson stepped down 20 months
ahead of his scheduled retirement after critics drew attention to
his poor attendance while continuing to draw his salary. It was
also the first time that the Senate had voted to suspend one of its
members, which prompted his resignation shortly afterwards. The
last member of the Senate who served past the age of 75 was
John Michael Macdonald who
had been appointed by
John
George Diefenbaker in 1960 served until his death in 1997 at
the age of 91.
Orville Howard
Phillips was the last Senator appointed for life to leave the
body, he was appointed by Diefenbaker in 1963 and served in the
Senate until 1999 when he voluntarily resigned a month before
turning 75.
In the 1960s and 1970s discussion of reforming the appointment
mechanism resurfaced alongside the
Quiet Revolution and the rise of
Western alienation, usually with the
chief goal of making the Senate better represent the provinces in
Parliament.
It was often suggested that provincial
governments should appoint senators, as was done in the United States before the Seventeenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Others
suggested that senators should be actual members of provincial
legislatures, similar to the Bundesrat
of Germany
. The 1960s and 1970s discussions also
suggested redistributing Senate seats to the growing
western provinces, but formal suggestions for
equality of seats between provinces did not occur until 1981.
Likewise, schemes to create an elected Senate did not gain
widespread support until after 1980, when Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau enacted the
National Energy Program in the wake
of the energy crises of the 1970s. Many Western Canadians then
called for a "
Triple-E Senate",
standing for "elected, equal, and effective". They believed that
allowing equal representation of the provinces, regardless of
population, would protect the interests of the smaller provinces
and outlying regions.
There have been at least 28 major proposals for constitutional
Senate reform since the early 1970s, and all have failed. The
Meech Lake Accord, a series of
constitutional amendments proposed by Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney, would have required the
federal government to choose a senator
from a list of persons nominated by the provincial government; the
accord, however, failed to obtain the requisite unanimous consent
of the provincial legislatures. A successor proposal, the
Charlottetown Accord, involved a
provision under which the Senate would include an equal number of
senators from each province, elected either by the provincial
legislatures or by the people. This accord was soundly defeated in
the referendum held in 1992. Further proposals for Senate reform
have not met with success, either, especially due to opposition in
Ontario and Quebec, the two provinces with the most to lose due to
equal representation.
Recent developments
Party positions
Today, the
New Democratic Party
and the
Bloc Québécois both
call for the Senate's abolition.
Although the
Liberal party
has no formal policy for Senate reform, former Liberal Prime
Minister
Paul Martin had stated that he
"support[ed]" Senate reform if the provinces are more involved in
the process and if it does not "create greater inequality". Some
have stated that the issue of Senate reform would have been the
litmus test for Martin's
policy on western Canada.
In theory, the
Conservative
Party has committed itself to appointing elected senators. In
practice, however, party leader Stephen Harper appointed the
unelected
Michael Fortier to both
the Senate and to the Cabinet on 6 February 2006, the day his
minority government took office.
(Fortier later resigned his seat in order to seek election to the
House of Commons in the 40th General Election.
He was defeated in
his attempt.) In 2007, Harper recommended the appointment of
Bert Brown, who was elected in Alberta's senator in waiting
election. Prime Minister Harper has stated that the Senate
"must either change or—like the old upper houses of our
provinces—vanish". Under Harper, a large number of vacant seats
were left unfilled until just after the
prorogation during the
2008 Canadian parliamentary
dispute, when Harper filled the remaining seats rather than
risk seeing them filled by any incoming coalition government.
Harper has also promised further reforms beyond electing senators,
including limits on how long each senator may sit. To that effect,
on May 30, 2006, the government introduced Bill S-4 in the Senate,
which would amend the Constitution Act, 1867 to limit the term of a
newly appointed senator to eight years. It also provides that
current senators may serve out their term to age 75. While
appearing before a Senate committee, Harper announced that in the
fall of 2006, the government would introduce a bill to allow
Canadians to elect senators. This bill was announced on December
13, 2006. S-4 died at the end of the first parliamentary session,
but was reintroduced with modifications as C-19 in the second
session. The bill was reintroduced in 2009 as Bill S-7 with one
change: senators appointed between October 14, 2008, and the date
the amendment takes effect will remain senators for eight years
after the amendment comes into force.
The federal government also introduced Bill C-43 for "the
consultation of the electors... in relation to the appointment of
senators". "Pending the pursuit of a constitutional amendment... to
provide for a means of direct election" the elected candidates will
not automatically become senators; they will be presented to the
prime minister who retains the choice of whom to recommend to be
appointed senator. According to the bill, these "consultations"
should be held together with federal or provincial legislative
elections (ss. 12–13). The bill makes no changes in the
distribution of seats among the provinces. The bill died at the end
of the first parliamentary session, but was reintroduced in the
second as Bill C-20.
On December 22, 2008 the Prime Minister filled all eighteen vacant
Senate seats. It was earlier reported in the
Toronto Star that this action was "to kill any
chance of a Liberal-NDP coalition government filling the vacancies
next year". . The new Senators include broadcasters
Pamela Wallin (for Saskatchewan) and
Mike Duffy (for PEI), and Olympic skier
Nancy Greene Raine (for BC).
Provincial positions
Support
for the abolition of the Senate has been voiced by the premiers of
four provinces: Ontario, British
Columbia, Saskatchewan (under the previous NDP government), and Manitoba. Support for Senate reform has traditionally
been very strong from the government of Alberta.
Following the election of the
Saskatchewan Party and the defeat of the
Saskatchewan New
Democratic Party, Premier
Brad Wall
has announced support for Senate reform, and has promised to hold
Senate elections in the province.
Murray-Austin amendment
On June
22, 2006, Senator Lowell Murray
(PC-Ontario) and
Senator Jack Austin (Liberal-British Columbia) introduced an amendment to the Constitution of Canada to alter the
makeup of the Senate. This amendment would enlarge the
Senate to one hundred and seventeen members, giving a greater
number to the western provinces of British Columbia (12), Alberta
(10), Saskatchewan (7), and Manitoba (7), each up from 6. The
amendment would also increase the number of divisions to five by
separating British Columbia into its own division, and increase the
number of additional Senators the
Queen can appoint to five or ten, from
four or eight. Austin, in a letter to
BC Premier Gordon Campbell claims
to have the support of a majority of the members of the
Liberal-dominated Senate.
The amendment was debated on June 27 and 28, 2006, and then sent to
a special committee on Senate Reform. That committee considered the
amendment and, on October 26, 2006, endorsed it. The matter has
been before the Senate since that time and, on December 11, 2006,
Conservative Senator
David Tkachuk
proposed an amendment to the proposed constitutional amendment that
would provide for twenty-four Senators for British Columbia. This
amendment was seconded by Liberal Senator
Larry Campbell.
Current composition
Notes
- 1 The Conservatives control government business in
the Senate due to holding the most seats in the House of
Commons.
- 2 Senator Raymond
Lavigne was suspended from the Liberal caucus on June 6, 2006
after allegations that he misused Senate funds for personal use,
but he still identifies himself as a Liberal senator.
- 3 When the Progressive Conservative Party merged
with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada
in 2004, all but three Progressive Conservative senators became
Conservative senators. Two additional senators who have chosen to
sit as "Progressive Conservatives" were appointed on the
recommendation of Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, over one year
after the merger occurred. One of the five remaining Progressive
Conservative senators died in December 2005, and another joined the
Conservative caucus in March 2006 bringing the total to three. The
retirement of Norman Atkins on June 27, 2009, further reduced the
number of PC Senators to two.
- 4 Senator Anne Cools was
removed from Conservative caucus for speaking out against Prime
Minister Stephen Harper and for voting against the 2007 budget. The
Parliament of Canada Web Site lists her as a non-aligned
senator.
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Franco, Guida (2006). Canadian Almanac & Directory 2006.
Toronto: Micromedia ProQuest, 3-42. ISBN 1-895021-90-1.
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
