Senate of Canada - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The Sénat of the Canada (English, Senate off Canada ) is one of the three components of the Canadian Parlement with the Couronne (represented by the general governor) and the House of Commons. The Senate and the House of Commons sit in two rooms different on the Colline from the Parliament to Ottawa (Ontario).

The Senate is composed of one hundred five members chosen by the Prime Minister and named by the general governor. The seats are divided on a regional basis and each regional division receives twenty-four seats. Four regional divisions are the Ontario, the Quebec, the Seaboard provinces and the provinces of the West. The number of seats for Ground-New-and-Labrador, the Territories of the North-West, the Yukon and the Nunavut are assigned apart from these regional divisions. The senators can sit until the seventy-five years age.

The Senate is the “ Upper House ” of the Parliament and the House of Commons is the “ Lower House ”. This does not mean however which the Senate holds more capacity than the House of Commons. On the contrary, by tradition, the House of Commons largely dominates, and although the approval of the two rooms is necessary for the adoption of a law, the Senate rejects only very seldom bills adopted by the democratically elected room. Moreover, the Gouvernement of Canada depends only on the House of Commons: the Prime Minister and his government remain in station only insofar as they enjoy the confidence of the Lower House, which can reverse the government by withdrawing this confidence to him. The Senate does not have any control of this kind. Although a Bill can be introduced into one or the other of the two Rooms, the majority of the bills of the government is initially introduced to the House of Commons. According to the constitution, the financial bills must always emanate from the Lower House.

The room in which seat the Senate is sometimes called the “ room rouge ” because of its luxurious decoration and the red fabric which decorates the room, which strongly contrasts with the more modest style and the green color of the House of Commons. This arrangement is inherited that of the Chambres of the British Parliament , where the House of Lords is a luxurious room with red benches and the House of Commons is a room little decorated with green benches.

History

The Senate was created in 1867 when, the March 29th, the Parlement of the United Kingdom voted the Acte of British North America. This act gathered the Province of Canada (whose two halves, the Canada-Is and the Canada-West, were separate in two distinct provinces corresponding today respectively to the Quebec and the Ontario), the Nova Scotia and the New Brunswick in only one Fédération called the Dominion of Canada.

The Parlement of Canada was modelled according to the Système of Westminster (the model of the Parliament of the United Kingdom). The Senate was at the origin to imitate the British House of Lords and to represent the social and economic elite. The first Prime Minister of Canada, to sir John A. Macdonald, said that it was about the room which would slow down the “ excess démocratiques ” of the House of Commons elected and the equality of the regional representation would allow.

Legislative functions

Although a Bill can be deposited with one or the other of the Rooms, the majority pass initially by the House of Commons. However, because of the greatest flexibility of the schedules of debate to the Senate, the government deposits sometimes initially with the Senate of the particularly complex bills.

The approval of the two Rooms of the Parliament is necessary for the adoption of a law and, in theory, their capacities are equal to the reserve of two exceptions:

In accordance with the British model, the Upper House cannot introduce bills raising of the taxes or the taxes or allocating public funds. Just like with the the United States, but contrary with the the United Kingdom, this restriction of the capacity of the Senate does not concern a tacit agreement: she is explicitly written in the constitutional Loi of 1867.
the House of Commons can pass in addition to a refusal of the Senate to approve a amendment with the Canadian constitution; however it must wait at least 180 days before exerting this right.

In practice, on the other hand, the House of Commons is dominant and the Senate uses only very seldom its capacities to be opposed to the will of the elected Room.

However, lasting certain periods, the Senate is more active in the revision, the amendment and even the rejection of bills. It was the going case in particular during the period of the end of the Années 1980 at the beginning of the Années 1990. During this period, the Senate opposed the bills on the agreement of free trade with the United States in 1988 and the Taxe on the products and services (TPS). In 1990, the Senate rejected four bills: a bill adopted by the communes limiting the access to the Abortion (C-43), a bill having for object the reorganization of the federal agencies (C-93), a bill aiming to the refitting of the airport To ballast B. Pearson of Toronto (C-28) and a bill (C-220).

Relation with the government

Contrary to the House of Commons, the Senate has only one role very limited in the control of the government. Only the House of Commons can force the Prime Minister to resign or ask for the dissolution of the Parliament and the behavior of new elections by the emission of “briefs of elections” ( writs off election ) by adopting a Motion of censure or as a voter mainly against the budget of the government.

The majority of the members of the the Council of Ministers are Député S with the House of Commons rather than senators. In particular, all the Prime Ministers since 1896 were appointed with the House of Commons. The typical Council of Ministers includes only one senator: the Leader of the government to the Senate. Occasionally, when the party in power does not include any deputy of a particular area, a senator is named with a ministry in order to ensure a regional balance the government.

Senators

It is the General governor of Canada which holds the capacity to name the senators; however, by convention, it carries out these nominations only on the only council of the Prime Minister. This one generally chooses members of its own party to be named with the Senate, but it happens that he names the independent ones or members of a party of the opposition. In practice, a very great number of the members of the Senate are ex-members of the Council of Ministers or ex- provincial Prime Ministers.

The constitution envisages a number given senators for each province and each territory. It distributed the provinces in four principal regional divisions and grants to each one of these divisions an equal number senators:

24 for the Ontario,
24 for the Quebec,
24 for the Seaboard provinces (10 for the Nova Scotia, 10 for the New Brunswick and 4 for the Island-of-Prince-Edouard)
24 for the provinces of the Western (6 for the Manitoba, 6 for the Colombia-British, 6 for the Saskatchewan and 6 for the Alberta).

Ground-New-and-Labrador, which reached the statute of province only in 1949, is included/understood in none of these divisions, and is represented by 6 senators.

The three territories (the Territories of the North-West, the Yukon and the Nunavut) have 1 seat each one.

All the senators must obligatorily reside in the province or the territory which they represent, but only the senators of Quebec are assigned with a specific area within their province. In the beginning, this measure had been adopted to ensure the right representation of the english-speaking and the French-speaking people the Senate.

This distribution, following the example distribution of other Upper Houses all over the world, does not take into account the criterion of the population to determine the number of senators and results in to involve inequalities of representation: Ontario, the Colombia-British and Alberta — the Canadian provinces whose population knows the fastest growth — under-are severely represented, while the seaboard provinces on-are represented. For example, the Colombia-British, with a population of 4 million, is entitled to 6 senators, while Nova Scotia, with a population lower than a million, has 10 of them. Only Quebec is represented by a number of senators proportional to his demographic weight.

Since 1989, Alberta makes elect “ senator-in-attente ” ( senators-in-waiting ) which is indicated by the voters to be senators of the province. But these elections are envisaged by no clause legal or constitutional federal, and, consequently, the Prime Minister is not at all held to make name these candidates with the Senate. To date, only one elected senator was named with the Senate: Stan Waters was named in 1990 on the recommendation of the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, but it is deceased in 1991.

There exists a constitutional clause, section 26 of the constitutional Loi of 1867, under the terms of which the Prime Minister can make name four or eight additional senators; these senators must also represent four regional divisions. This clause was called upon by twice in the history, but it was used only once.

In 1990, the Brian Mulroney Prime Minister called upon it to ensure the adoption of a bill creating the Taxe on the products and services (TPS). The nomination of eight additional senators created a mean majority for the Parti progressist-conservative.
In 1874, the Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie had already asked for the use of this clause, but she was refused to him by the Reine Victoria on the council of the British government.

Before 1965, the senators preserved to them seat with life. However, under the terms of the Act of British North America of 1965, the members of the Senate cannot sit any more after having reached the seventy-five years age. The senators named before the introduction of this change could continue to sit last this age limit.

The seat of a senator becomes automatically vacant if he neglects to attend the meetings of the Senate for two consecutive parliamentary sessions. Moreover, one senator who is recognized guilty of high treason, of a serious offense ( ) or of very other “ crime infâme ” ( infamous crime ), which declares bankruptcy or which is declared insolvent also loses its seat. It is the same for a senator who ceases answering the criteria of qualification (see “Qualifications” below).

In date of 2006, the wages of a senator are of 122.700 $ per annum. The senators can receive additional wages if they hold additional expenditure (like the Présidence of the Senate for example). The senators are placed in twenty-sixth position in the order of precedence, immediately before the deputies of the House of Commons and after the federal judges and provincial.

Qualifications

The qualifications necessary for the senators are established by the constitutional Loi of 1867.

To be named with the Senate, it is necessary:

to be Canadian citizen.
to have more than thirty years.
to reside in the province which one represents with the Senate.
to have grounds of a minimal value of 4000 $ in the province which one in addition represents as well as personal estate ( ) and real ( ) of a minimal value of 4000 $ to all his debts and obligations. These qualifications of property were introduced in an original manner to make sure that the Senate would represent the economic and social elite of Canada, but today the sum required represents a quite less value because of the Inflation. However, the land qualification forever abolished or modified, and because some problems during the nomination to the Senate in 1997 of Peggy Butts, a catholic nun which had made wish of poverty. (The situation was solved when its order formally transferred a small small holding to its name.)

The original Canadian constitution explicitly did not prohibit the women from sitting at the Senate, but in fact, until the end of the Années 1920, only of the men were named with the Upper House. In 1927, five Canadian women (“ Famous Five ”, ) required of the Supreme court of Canada to determine if the women were eligible with the nomination with the Senate while answering the question explicitly: “Are the women people? ”. Indeed the Act of British North America of 1867 stipulated that “ the general governor will mandera with the Senate of the qualified people; and any person thus mandée will become and be a member of the Senate and a sénateur. ”. In this business known under the name of business of the people, the Supreme court ruled unanimously that the women could not become sénatrices. The Court based its decision on the argument which the authors of the constitution could not have provided the possibility of women sitting at the Senate since then the women did not take part in the policy; moreover, they put forward the fact that the Constitution used the pronoun “it” to appoint the senators. In call, however, the legal Comité of the British private Council (high court in Canada at the time) reversed this decision and affirmed that the women were indeed “ personnes ” in the direction wanted by the constitution. Four months later, in February 1930, the government of the Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King named the first woman with the Senate: Cairine Wilson, of the Ontario.

Officers

President of the Senate

The President of the Senate is named by the General governor according to the choice of the Prime Minister. The President is helped by a temporary President who is elected by the Senate at the beginning of each parliamentary session. If the President cannot be present, the temporary President governs his place. Moreover, the Law on the Parliament of Canada, adopted in 1985, authorizes the President to appoint another senator to provide his function temporarily. When it chairs, the President is held to remain impartial, even if there remains member of a political party.

The President governs the meetings of the Senate and directs the debates by inviting the members to speak. It is also held to give a judgment when a senator thinks that a rule was enfreinte and that it raises a “point of order” ( ). However, the decisions of the President are likely of. Contrary to the President of the House of Commons, the President of the Senate does not vote solely in the event of equality: he has the right to vote like any other senator.

The current President is No5el Kinsella.

Leaders of the government and the Opposition

The member of the responsible government to control the bills with the Senate is the Leader of the government to the Senate. The Leader is a senator chosen by the Prime Minister and a member of the Council of Ministers. The Leader manages the timetable of the Senate and tries to obtain the support of the opposition for government.

Its counterpart in the opposition is the Leader of the Opposition to the Senate, generally chosen by the Chef of the Opposition of the House of Commons. However, if the Official opposition with the communes is a party different from that which forms the Official opposition with the Senate (what was the case, for example, of 1993 with 2003), then the party of the Official opposition to the Senate chooses its own Leader.

Officers non-member

Among the officers of the Senate who are not members, one finds the Greffier, the associated clerk, the clerk of right and several other clerks. These officers advise the President and the members as for the payment and with the procedures of the Senate.

Another officer is the Gentilhomme usher of the black rod, for which the responsibilities include/understand the safety and maintenance of law and order inside the room of the Senate. Its name comes from the stick ceremonial of ebony which it carries. This station is more or less the equivalent of the Sergent of Weapons to the House of Commons, but the role of the usher is of nature more cérémoniale. The responsibility for safety and the infrastructure fails the Managing director of the services of the parliamentary City.

Procedure

Like the House of Commons, the Senate meets on the Colline of the Parliament to Ottawa.

The room of the Senate is luxuriously decorated in tons red and contrasts with the green color and House of Commons whose decoration is more modest. The armchairs of the senators are laid out on both sides of the central alley and that of the President is placed at the one of the ends of the Room. Opposite this seat the office of the clerk is where clerks ready assoient themselves to advise the President on the procedure when that proves to be necessary. The members of the government sit on the benches with the right-hand side of the President, while the members of the Opposition occupy the benches on its left.

The room of the Senate is the place where is held the opening of the Parliament, a protocolar ceremony which is held each year with the beginning of each parliamentary session. The general governor, sitted on the throne of the room of the Senate, then makes in the presence of the two joined together Rooms a speech describing the direction which the government for the parliamentary session will take to come. If the Sovereign is present at Canada, it can pronounce itself the Speech from the throne in the place of the general governor.

According to the payment of the Senate, the Senate sits of the Monday to Friday. The meetings of the Senate are opened with the public and are retranscribed completely in the Débats of the Senate . Contrary to the House of Commons, the Senate does not diffuse its meetings regularly on television, although it happened that debates on subjects of an private interest were diffused.

The constitutional Loi of 1867 establishes for the Senate a Quorum of fifteen members including the member who chairs. Any senator can ask the President to make sure of the presence of a quorum; if it appears that it there not the quorum, the President orders that one makes sound bells so that the other senators can reinstate the room. If a quorum is still not reached, the President must defer the Senate until the next day of meeting.

Course of the debates

During the debates, the first senator to be risen has the right to make the next speech. When several senators rise at the same time, it is to the President to decide which was the first upright, but his decision perhaps modified by the Senate.

Motions must be presented by a senator and supported by a second so that a debate can start; however, certain motions cannot be the subject of a debate ( non-debatable ).

The speeches can be marked in the two official languages of Canada, English and French. The senators must address to all the senators by using the expression “ honourable sénateurs ” and to address itself to any senator in particular. The individual senators must be mentioned with the third nobody, never with the second. This way of doing is similar, but nonidentical to the process to the House of Commons where all the speeches and all the comments are addressed to the President.

No senator can speak more once on the same question; however, a senator who deposited an important motion, which proposed an investigation or which sponsors a bill has a right of last counterpart which enables him to again speak at the end of the debate. In the case of a bill, this right of counterpart can be used only at the time of the debate in second reading.

The payment of the Senate establishes limits of time for the speeches. These limits depend on the nature of motion, but are generally of a fifteen minutes duration. However, the Leaders of the government and the Opposition are not subjected to these restrictions. A debate can also be shortened with the adoption of a motion of “distribution of time” ( time allowance motion ). The Senate can also put an end quickly to a debate by adopting a motion “ for the préalable question; ”. If such a motion is adopted, the debate ends immediately and the Senate holds a vote. A debate can also end if no senator has additional comment to make.

When a debate ends, motion in question is voted on. The Senate votes with high voice: the President puts the question, the members answer by yes or not and at the end of the vote, the President announces the result of sharp voice. However, two senators or more can dispute his calculation and then force the behavior of a vote per roll-call. The senators in favor of motion rise so that the clerks record their names and their votes. The same procedure is then followed for the members opposed to motion, and is repeated again for the members who abstain from. In all the cases, the President has the right to vote, but this right is generally not exerted, and he votes in first at the time of a vote by roll-call. An equality of the voices leads to the rejection of motion. If the number of members having voted, including the President, is lower than fifteen, there is no quorum and the vote is invalid.

It is the President who is charged to make respect the payment of the Senate during the debates and not to take account of its instructions is regarded as a serious violation with the payment.

Commissions

The commission can be created with various aims. Inter alia, they examine the bills in detail and can amend there. Certain commission are also formed to examine various ministries and organizations of the government.

The most commission of the Senate is the plenary commission, which includes/understands all the senators. The plenary commission meets in the room of the Senate, but the rules of debate are slightly modified compared to an assembly of the Senate. There is for example no limit on the number of times where a member can speak on the same motion. The Senate can be formed in committee plenary for various reasons, like examining a bill, or hearing the testimony of individuals. For example, before their nomination, it is frequent that the candidates who wish to become officers of the Parliament have to appear before the plenary commission to answer the relative questions with their qualifications.

The Senate also has a certain number of standing committees which are responsible for a specific part of the government (for example, the finances or the transport). These commissions examine the bills and make special studies on questions which are referred to them by the Senate. They can organize consultations, join together information and submit a report of their work to the Senate. The standing committees include/understand between nine and fifteen members each one and elect their own presidents.

Special subcommittees are named by the Senate when he considers it necessary for a particular question. Among these commissions, some are charged to study bills, as it was the case for example for the Special subcommittee of the Senate on the bill C-36 (law anti-terrorism) in 2001, others of the files of private interest, such as for example the Special subcommittee of the Senate on illegal drugs. The number of members for a special subcommittee can vary, but the partisane composition roughly reflects the importance of the parties in the Senate.

There are also Joint Committees, made up at the same time of senators and deputies. There exist currently two Joint Committees: permanent Joint Committee of examination of the regulation, which examines the Orders in Council, and permanent Joint Committee of the Library of the Parliament which advises the two presidents on the management of the library. The Parliament can also establish special Joint Committees to deal with files of topicality or particular importance.

Reform Senate

The reform projects of the Senate concentrate mainly on the process of nomination of the senators. Before the Years 1980, the plans suggested to create an elected Senate had not attracted each other a great support, but this situation developed in 1980, when the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made adopt, in answer to the energy crises of the Années 1970, the national energy Programme in spite of an opposition generalized in the Western Canadian. In spite of resistances, Trudeau had not indeed had any evil to secure the support of the Senate since the majority of the senators had been named by former Prime Ministers for the Liberal party and by itself. Many Canadians of the West are then reflected to assert a “ Senate triple-E ”, for “ elected official, equal and efficace ”, by also affirming that the equal representation of the provinces would protect the interests from the smallest provinces and would put an end to the predominance of Ontario and Quebec. Several proposals were made:

In 1987, the Agreement of the lake Meech, a series of constitutional amendments proposed by the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, would have constrained the federal government to choose the senators of each province on a list proposed by the provincial government, but the agreement did not receive the unanimous support necessary of the provincial assemblies.
a second proposal, the Agreement of Charlottetown, included a clause according to which the Senate would include/understand an equal number senators of each province, elected officials either by the legislative assembled of the provinces or directly by the people. This agreement was demolishes for various reasons in a referendum held in 1992.

Other reform proposals of the Senate did not have more success, mainly because of the opposition of Ontario and Quebec, the two provinces having to lose more in the event of equal representation.

Today, the New Democratic party and the Québécois Bloc claim both the abolition of the Senate. The Ontarian Prime Minister Dalton McGuinty also expressed its preference for abolition. Although the Liberal party did not formulate any official position on the reform of the Senate, the former Prime Minister Paul Martin had declared that it “ appuie ” a reform of the Senate provided that the provinces are implied in the process and that a possible reform “ do not create more inégalité ”. The conservative party promised to name only elected senators, although the Prime Minister Stephen Harper named a person not-elected with the Senate after the formation of its first Council of Ministers.

Currently, the abolition of the Senate is not an option very considered.

Answering criticisms which noted that a liberal majority crushing with the Senate had compromised its capacity to be functioned correctly, the Prime Minister Paul Martin (December 2003 - February 2006) adopted the same approach as Pierre Trudeau: he agree to name senators of the opposition parties. A little more of the third (5 out of 14) nominations Martin - who had promised to regulate this “ deficit démocratique ” - were people resulting from the opposition parties: two progressist-conservatives, two conservatives and a néo-democrat. Before him, Trudeau (April 1968 - June 1979 and March 1980 - June 1984) had called eight members of parties of the opposition on eighty nominations which it carried out during its mandates and the very first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald (July 1867 - November 1873 and October 1878 - June 1891), had called ten of them out of eighty eleven nominations. Apart from these twenty-three senators, only nine other senators in the history of the country were named with the Caucus of opposition to the Senate. This does not include the senators without political affiliation.

The project To grip

The Prime Minister Stephen Harper (February 2006 - mandate in progress) promised to hold of the elections to fill any vacant seat with the Senate during his mandate. Contrary to the majority of the reform proposals of the Senate, Harper is able to respect this promise without modifying the constitution, but simply by recommending to the general governor the nomination of people elected to sit at the Senate. However, the day of its assermentation as a Prime Minister, it was revealed that the Inhabitant of Quebec Michael Fortier would be member of the Council of Ministers, and that it would be named with the Senate and would resign of his seat during the dissolution of the Parliament to be candidate with the communes at the time of the next general election. Mr. Fortier was formally named with the Senate the February 27th 2006.

To grip also promised other reforms, including mandates of limited time for the senators. For this purpose, the May 30th 2006, the government introduced the S-4 bill with the Senate which would modify the constitutional Loi of 1867 to limit to eight years the term of the office of a senator lately named; the bill includes a clause which makes it possible to the current senators to continue to sit until the 75 years age. However, no indication was given as for the moment or to the means by which the senatorial elections would be introduced. Appearing before a committee of the Senate, Harper announced that its government would file in with the autumn a 2006 bill to allow the Canadians to elect their senators.

This bill did not lead in front of the dissension between the Party cnservator, the Liberal party and the other provinces.

Murray-Austin amendment

The June 22nd 2006, the Ontarian senator Lowell Murray (progressist-conservative) and the senator britanno-Colombian Jack Austin (liberal) file in a draft amendment to the constitution of Canada to modify the representation with the Senate. This amendment would increase the full number of senators with 117 members, granting to a greater number to the provinces of the Western Canadian: the Colombia-British would have 12 of them, the Alberta 10, the Saskatchewan and the Manitoba 7 each one. These four provinces currently have 6 senators each one. The amendment would also increase the number of divisions by separating the Colombia-British and would increase the number of additional senators that the Queen can name of five or ten, against four or eight currently. The amendment was not discussed yet, but, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister britanno-Colombian Gordon Campbell, Austin affirms to have the support of a majority of the senators.

Referendum on the abolition of the Senate

In November 2007, Jack Layton, the chief of the NPD, proposes to hold a referendum on the abolition of the Senate. It obtains the support Stephen Harper (Preserving) and of Gilles Duceppe (Block). Seul Stephan Dion would be opposed to the idea to hold a referendum, which could succeed if the majority of the parties are of agreement.