Louis Massicotte,
Professor
Political Science Department
Université Laval
Among democratic federations, the Canadian Senate looks astonishing on more than one count. Its members are not elected, but appointed by the federal executive. Senators keep their seat until they turn 75. Finally, the allocation of seats between the provinces is loosely connected with the demographic reality of the country: with less than 750,000 inhabitants, New Brunswick has 10 seats, while British Columbia has only six for a population of over four million. Despite these representational handicaps, the Senate could in theory delay or even reject any bill passed by the House of Commons, even if in practice such powers are rarely used.
Thinking about Senate reform is almost as old as the Constitution itself, and there have been many more failures than successes. However, since 2006 Canada’s Prime Minister has made a priority of Senate reform. The Senate has long been one of the institutions that Western Canada wishes to reform in order to increase its own influence. Senate reform was one of the war cries of the old Reform Party.
