The Senate

Who• The Prime Minister appoints Senators• Senators serve on the Senate until they are 75

years old and then retire• Senators must own land worth $4000 in the

province they represent• If a Senator dies, retires, or reaches the age of

75 the current Prime Minister will appoint a new Senator

• Prime Ministers always appoint people from their own party to the Senate

Organization• Senate split into four regions, Ontario, Quebec, the

Maritimes, and the Western Provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories make up a fifth unrecognized region

• 105 seats in the Senate– Ontario 24– Quebec 24– The Maritimes 24 (PEI 4, New Brunswick 10, Nova Scotia

10)– The Western Provinces 24 (BC 6, Alberta 6, Saskatchewan

6, Manitoba 6)– Newfoundland and Labrador 6– Nunavut, Yukon, the Northwest Territories 3 (1 each)

Purpose

• Senate has three main purposes 1. To give regional representation,2. To polish legislation3. To provide a “sober second-thought”

To Give Regional Representation

• Seats in the House of Commons are determined by population, as the population grows more seats are added

• The Senate was planned to make sure the regions of Canada all had an equal say in the government

• Specifically it was designed to make sure that Quebec could protect its language and culture from the other provinces

To Polish Legislation

• Senators spend a lot of time in committees and making reports

• When new laws are passed they will often send a list of recommendations on how to improve it or preform a study on the impact of the law

• These recommendations must be approved by the House of Commons

Senate Committees

To Provide a “Sober Second Thought”

• This means to reconsider the bills or laws that the House of Commons has passed

• The Senate will not kill a bill but they might send it back to the House of Commons to be voted on again

• Normally when it is sent back it has recommendations

4th Original Purpose

• The Senate was originally designed so that the elites of Canada would be able to kill any bill in the House of Commons they did not like

• This why Senators must have $4000 in land (approximately worth $200 000 now)

• As Canada grew the Senate grew weaker and lost this purpose

Criticisms

• 3 main criticisms of the Senate1. Over representation of business leaders2. Patronage Device3. Unequal Representation

Over representation of business leaders

• Two thirds of senators come from a business background, some groups argue that this has lead to the Senate being soft on corporations and big business

• The worry is that the Senate will decide what is best for corporations (big companies) instead of for the people

Patronage Device

• Patronage: giving high positions and favors in return for loyalty or favors to the party

• 5 out of every 6 senators worked as either a party fundraiser, were part of a party executive committee, or worked as an advisor on a party’s election campaign.

• This has lead some groups to argue that the Senate has become away of rewarding friends of the Prime Minister.

Unequal Representation• BC has six senators the same as Newfoundland while

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have ten each. • This has led some people to complain that the

Senate has failed in its purpose of regional representation

Reform

• There has been 28 major proposals to change the Senate since the 1970s, all have failed

• Some ideas• Provinces should appoint Senators• Senators should be Provincial MLAs• Western Provinces should get more Senate

seats• The Senate should be removed from the

government

The 3-E Senate

• Elected, Equal, & Effective• A popular idea on how to reform the senate• Elected – all Senators will be elected• Equal – each province would be given the

same amount of seats in the Senate• Effective – if the Senators were elected and of

an equal number then the senate could do what it has built to do

Review

• Senate is appointed not elected• Purpose is to give provinces equal

representation and to help improve bills• Senate is seen as bad because it does not equal

represent provinces and appointments are given as rewards or as favors

• Many people want the Senate to change; specifically to have senators elected and have each province have an equal number of senators