I know the lower house is selected through general elections, but what about the upper house?
In: Other
The Canadian Senate is modeled on the Lords and it’s basically equal to the House of Commons, constrained mostly by the decent recognition by sitting Senators that the Senate is not as legitimate as the elected Commons. Senators are appointed by the King in council with his ministers, which means that whoever the Prime Minister appoints gets a seat. There are 105 seats in the Senate, and Senators serve until age 75. The Senate was deliberately set up with appointed members so that they would not have the power to thwart the decisions of the Commons. Most bills originate in the Commons, numbered C-*nn*, rather than the Senate (S-*nn*).
To keep the Senate to heel, Prime Ministers usually leave several Senate seats vacant (currently 10) and can appoint up to eight extras. If the Senate ever got frisky and defeated a Commons bill, the Prime Minister could appoint 18 “yes” votes tomorrow to get a 16% head start on a later attempt to pass the legislation.
The Prime Minister is constitutionally constrained to appoint based on regional diversity and may also take other attributes into consideration to maintain diversity of thought in the Senate. For example, it’s common to have person who is or used to be an organized labour leader, Hassan Yussuff currently. Most Canadians would have a hard time naming one Senator, and almost none could name three.
In an attempt to make the Senate more independent and appointments more transparent, Trudeau the younger expelled all Senators from his party’s caucus and set up an independent advisory board to provide a short list of Senate candidates. While the Prime Minister is not bound to accept their recommendations, Trudeau himself has only made appointments selected from the board’s lists. Some provinces have resisted participating in the board process because they fear that it would lend the Senate legitimacy. If the Senate is the legitimate forum for regional representation in Canada, then that could diminish the power of the Commons and the provincial legislatures. The next Prime Minister may choose to ignore the board, or even disband it. The board is not mandated in the Constitution or in law.
Latest Answers