canadian senate

The Senate of Canada is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. The senate has 105 members who are appointed by the Governor General on advice from the Prime Minister and serve until the age of 75.

24 from Ontario;
24 from Quebec;
24 are from the Maritime Provinces (10 from Nova Scotia, 10 from New Brunswick, 4 from Prince Edward Island);
24 from the Western Provinces (6 each from Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta);
6 from Newfoundland and Labrador;
and one each from Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Nunavut.

This arrangement has had the effect that Ontario and the West, the fastest growing regions of Canada, are severely underrepresented relative to their population, while the Maritimes are substantially overrepresented. There is a provision to add four or eight extra senators—one or two from each of Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and the West—to break a deadlock in the Senate. This provision has only been used once, in 1990, by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to ensure the passage of a bill creating a national sales tax (the Goods and Services Tax or GST). The presiding officer of the body is the Speaker of the Canadian Senate who is appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Leader of the Government in the Senate and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate lead the opposing sides in the chamber. The Senate sits in the Senate Chamber (also called the "Red Chamber") of the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario.

Function

The Throne of Canada
Throne Chairs for The Queen of Canada, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Governor General in the Canadian Senate. The front chair is used by the Speaker of the Senate.

Under Canada's constitution, the Governor General alone can "summon qualified Persons to the Senate" in the name of the Queen of Canada. However, in reality, the Prime Minister controls the appointments and the Governor General is bound by convention to appoint the Prime Minister's nominees. Once appointed, senators hold office until age 75 unless they miss two consecutive sessions of Parliament. Senators appointed until 1965 held office for life. The Senate can initiate any bills except bills providing for the expenditure of public money or imposing taxes. It can amend or reject any bill whatsoever and can reject any bill as often as it sees fit; no bill can become law unless it has been passed by the Senate. In theory these powers are formidable, but for more than 40 years the Senate did not reject any bills passed by the House of Commons and very rarely insisted on an amendment that the House of Commons rejected. Then, in 1988, it refused to pass the "Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement", the forerunner and basis for the North American Free Trade Agreement, until it had been submitted to the people in a general election. In 1989-1990, the Senate insisted on amendments to an unemployment insurance bill that the Commons rejected; the Senate eventually passed the bill as submitted by the Commons. In 1991, the Senate defeated a Commons bill respecting abortion. In some cases, the Senate has chosen not to give its approval to bills before the end of a session, thereby effectively stopping them from becoming law. Most of the amendments that the Senate makes to bills passed by the Commons are for purposes of clarification or simplification and are almost always accepted by the House of Commons. The Senate's main work is done in its committees, where it goes over bills clause by clause and hears evidence, often voluminous, from groups and individuals who would be affected by the particular bill under review. This committee work is designed to be effective because the Senate is supposed to have many members with specialized knowledge and long years of legal, business or administrative experience. Their ranks include ex-cabinet ministers, ex-premiers of provinces, ex-mayors, eminent lawyers, experienced farmers, and others. In recent decades, the Senate has taken on a new job of investigating important public problems such as poverty, unemployment, inflation, the aged, land use, science policy, aboriginal affairs, relations with the United States, and the efficiency (or lack thereof) of government departments. These investigations are designed to produce valuable reports that can lead to changes in legislation or government policy.

Party standings in the Canadian Senate

Last updated 24 March 2005

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		BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	YT	NT	NU
Liberal Party	*	3	5	2	2	13	15	8	6	3	4	1	1	1	64
Conservative Party	*	2	0	3	2	7	3	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	23
Progressive Conservative Party¹	*	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	5
Independent New Democrat²	*	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Independent	*	0	0	0	1	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Vacant	*	1	0	0	1	0	3	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	7
		6	6	6	6	24	24	10	10	4	6	1	1	1	105

(As of March 24 2005) Notes:

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ceased to exist in 2003, but Senators Lowell Murray, Norman K. Atkins and William Doody refused to join the new Conservative Party of Canada and continued to sit as a Progressive Conservative caucus. Paul Martin's appointment of two new PC members to the Senate in March 2005 gave the caucus 5 seats. It is unclear whether or not this will qualify them for official party status. As of April 5th, the caucus has said that they "dont think it's gonna happen" and are warning people to prepare for the rejection of the application for status, saying they'll get a final answer on tuesday the 12th of april.
Senator Lillian Dyck was announced as a Senator for the New Democratic Party, but the NDP has stated that she is not a member of the party and is not recognized as a member of their parliamentary caucus due to the party's position advocating the abolition of the Senate. Dyck's "caucus of one" does not qualify for official party status.

Appointment breakdown

Nine current senators have been appointed by Prime Minister Paul Martin (Liberal, 2003 - present)
Forty-eight current senators were appointed by Prime Minister Jean Chrtien (Liberal, 1993-2003)
Twenty-six current senators were appointed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Progressive Conservative, 1984-1993)
One current senator was appointed by Prime Minister John Turner (Liberal, 1984)
Twelve current senators were appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Liberal, 1968-1979, 1980-1984)
Two current senators were appointed by Prime Minister Joe Clark (Progressive Conservative, 1979-1980)

Why the Senate was created

The Senate was created to be weaker than the House of Commons and in some respects to mirror the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. The Senate was given two major functions in the constitution. First, it was to be the chamber of "sober second thought" to curb the "democratic excesses" of the House of Commons, in the words of John A. Macdonald. Such a limit should prevent the elected House of Commons from turning Canada into a "mobocracy", as the Fathers of Confederation saw the United States. The $4000 property holding requirement was designed to ensure members of the Senate would represent an economic elite in contrast to the presumably less wealthy and less educated members of the lower house. The Senate was thus given the power to overturn many types of legislation introduced by the Commons and also to delay any changes to the constitution, thus preventing the Commons from committing any rash actions. This ability quickly proved itself illusory as even the conservative Canadians of the nineteenth century saw the Senate as a sinecure for patronage without the electoral legitimacy of the Commons, a view which persists to this day. As Canada became more liberal and democratic, the idea of an appointed Senate that merely rubber-stamps bills approved by the House of Commons became unpalatable to many Canadians. On the rare occasion where the Senate rejects a bill passed by the Commons, the same argument is used to question its authority to act. It is to be noted that a long-serving prime minister establishes over time a strong favourable majority in the Senate that makes it easier for her or him to pass bills and more difficult for successors from other parties. The second original function of the Senate was to provide regional representation. This is technically still the case, with representation in the Senate allotted on a provincial basis. Unfortunately, this regional representation is more consistent with 1867 demographics than with today's and cannot easily cope with recent demographic changes. The ability of senators to represent their regions is also muted by the appointive process where a prime minister can choose senators that will best reflect her or his centralizing views.

Criticism

Though it has many positive traits, the Canadian Senate is nevertheless one of the most unpopular political institutions in Canada. It is seen by many as undemocratic, unequal, and largely useless. Since the prime minister gets to appoint whomever he chooses, the Senate is often criticized as being little more than a "country club" for friends of the prime minister and a convenient venue for political patronage. The Senate is rarely a prominent player in Canadian politics, partially due to its well-founded reputation of "rubber-stamping" all bills passed by the House of Commons. In recent years polls have shown an overwhelming majority of Canadians are unable to name a single sitting senator. The joke was not lost on many Canadians when, for four years after the Parliament fire of 1916, the Senate sat in the 'Hall of Fossils' at their temporary home of the Victoria Museum (now the Canadian Museum of Nature). The Senate tends to only exercise its power when the House of Commons is dominated by a rival party, such as the period during the infamous GST debate in the late 1980s. At the time, the Senate was controlled by the Liberal Party and the Commons by the Progressive Conservatives. The GST bill was important to Prime Minister Mulroney and he was determined to prevent the Senate from rejecting his party's motion. Rather than face certain defeat, he quickly began a flurry of Senate appointments, filling all vacant seats with Progressive Conservative supporters and invoking a clause in the Constitution (Section 26 of The Constitution Act, 1867) allowing him to increase the Senate's size and appoint eight more senators than normal. In a few short weeks, Mulroney was able to create a Progressive Conservative majority in the Senate and the GST bill was passed. This episode has since served as the most prominent example of the Senate's weak nature and its general subordination to the will of the prime minister.

Reform

Reform of the Senate has been a topic on and off in Canadian politics since the early 20th century. Some Western Canadians such as Preston Manning propose the creation of a Triple-E Senate (for "Elected, Equal and Effective") modelled on the US and Australian Senates in which Senators would be elected with each province being equally represented. This proposal has failed to gain support in Ontario or Quebec, the two provinces which would have the most to lose in terms of representation if the proposal was implemented. The New Democratic Party has traditionally advocated outright abolition of the Senate, as has the Bloc Quebecois, even though it also favours Quebec's secession from Canada. Since 1989 the province of Alberta has elected its senators. Only one has ever been appointed to the senate.

External link

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Canadian Senate

Function

Party standings in the Canadian Senate

Appointment breakdown

Why the Senate was created

Criticism

Reform

See also

External link