Senate of Canada - Senate Reform

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 selection process; the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada was an appointed chamber from its formation in 1840 until it became an elected house in 1865 and remained as such until it was dissolved in 1867. The federal parliament of Canada 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 on the advice of John George Diefenbaker in 1960 and 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, each elected either by the majority in the relevant provincial legislature or by the majority of voters in the province. This accord was soundly defeated in the referendum held in 1992.

Further proposals for Senate reform have not met with success, partly due to the difficulty in achieving a consensus among provinces. Quebec, in particular, does not want its share of the Chamber's seats diluted.