Senate of Canada

“ Any notion that a nominated Senate will be the serene abode of high character, or special knowledge, or commercial authority, such as shrinks from electoral contests, is belied by the experience of Canada, where the Senate is a mere infirmary for superannuated partisans, especially for such as have spent money for the party elections. Where the Senate is elective, and the authority of the nation is divided, in whatever proportions, between the two Houses, collision is certain to ensue, sooner or later ”

“ No one foresaw, in truth, that the Senate would consider measures chiefly on party grounds, and would fail to demonstrate the usefulness of a second chamber by industry and capacity in revising hasty legislation. The delegates actually believed that equality of representation between the three divisions, Upper Canada, Lower Canada, and the Maritime Provinces, would make the Senate a bulwark of protection to individual provinces. ”

“ The upper house, or Senate, is composed of members who hold office for life and are nominated by the governor-general in council. It originally consisted of 72 members, 24 from Quebec, 24 from Ontario, and 24 from the maritime provinces, but this number has been from time to time slightly increased as new provinces have been added. The House of Commons consists of representatives elected directly by the people. The number of members, originally 196, is subject to change after each decennial census. ”

“ An amendment to the Constitution of Canada made by proclamation under section 38, 41, 42 or 43 may be made without a resolution of the Senate authorizing the issue of the proclamation if, within one hundred and eighty days after the adoption by the House of Commons of a resolution authorizing its issue, the Senate has not adopted such a resolution and if, at any time after the expiration of that period, the House of Commons again adopts the resolution. ”

“ Its seats are garnished by men from every profession and business in the Dominion, and from the most experienced men among them in every section of Canada, and if valuable opinions on banking, law, and business of all kinds, are required in any detail of legislation -- and they are invariably needed, as everyone knows -- they can be found on the benches of this House, I venture to say, in as great perfection and efficiency as in any assembly in this Dominion. It appears to me, therefore, that with these two great functions and others analogous to them, this Senate has plenty of work before it. ”

“ They have the example of thirty-six States in the United States, in which the Senate is elected, and no man, however sanguine, can hope that seventy-two stereotyped provincial peers in Canada will work harmoniously with a body elected upon a system so wide and so general as that which prevails in the States of the American Union. ”

“ The task will be made easy through Canada and the United States having the same legislature. The local and provincial governments are the same in the Canadian towns and provinces as they are in the American towns and 181 States—a House of Representatives, a Senate, and a Governor, with this difference, this great difference, to the present advantage of Canada: whereas every four years the Americans elect a new master, who appoints a ministry responsible to himself alone, the Canadians have a ministry responsible to their parliament, that is, to themselves. ”

“ The Parliament of Canada may from time to time make provision for the representation in the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, or in either of them, of any territories which for the time being form part of the Dominion of Canada, but are not included in any province thereof. ”

“ Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, the presence of at least fifteen Senators, including the Speaker, shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Senate for the exercise of its powers. 36. Questions arising in the Senate shall be decided by a majority of voices, and the Speaker shall in all cases have a vote, and when the voices are equal the decision shall be deemed to be in the negative. ”

“ And whereas doubts have arisen as to the power of the Parliament of Canada to pass that Act, and it is expedient to remove those doubts:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Confirmation of Canadian Act with respect to Speaker of Senate. ”

“ He forms his cabinet out of the party in majority in the elective Assembly. Each province has an elective Assembly, and most of them have two Houses, one of which is a Senate appointed for life. The provincial cabinet has a premier, who is the leader of the House, and the Opposition is represented by a recognized leader. The Government is as responsible as the Federal Government. This organization of recognized and responsible leaders greatly facilitates the despatch of public business. Affairs are brought to a direct issue ”

“ At a time when the United States is so generally in favor of the election of Senators by direct vote, when England is trending so preponderately in favor of curbing the veto power of the House of Lords, it seems remarkable that Canada never questions the power of the Senator appointed for life. ”

“ No Government can afford to ignore the claims of the party which supports it, or to miss the opportunity of strengthening its position in one of the Houses of Parliament. The Canadian Senate, which is a nominated body, fails to give satisfaction, and there is a strong demand for its reform. ”

“ Of course, if a cabinet is defeated it must resign and give place to one which has the confidence of the House. In this way, the will of the people (or it would be more correct to say of the men, for women have as yet no voice in the election of members to parliament) is supreme in Canada; and they must, in the last resort, hold themselves responsible for the doings of the men whom they put or retain in office. ”

“ In a new country the representatives of the people would, for the most part, be persons engaged in trade, who might be unable to attend Parliament for seven consecutive years. The qualifications necessary for electors in towns and counties were much too high. It seemed to him that ministers intended to prevent the introduction of popular government into Canada. While the number of the members of the Assembly were limited, the numbers of the Council, although they could not be less than seven members, were unlimited. ”

“ An assembly to consist of 16 or 30 members seemed to him to give a free constitution in appearance, while, in fact, such a constitution was withheld. The goodness of a bill, making the duration of Parliaments seven years, unless dissolved previously by the Governor, might be considered doubtful. In Great Britain, general elections were attended with inconveniences, but in Canada, where, for many years, elections were not likely to be attended with the consequences which ministers dreaded, he could not conceive why they should make such assemblies, not annual or triennial, but septennial. ”

“ There being only thirty thousand inhabitants in the whole province, small as the Parliament was, the people, if not fairly, were at least sufficiently represented. It is somewhat doubtful, nevertheless, that a constitution which gave only a quasi-sovereign to Upper Canada, neither directly, nor, as the Governors of Canada now are, indirectly responsible to the people, could have been the very image and transcript of the British Constitution. There was a misty resemblance to that celebrated and unwritten form of government, in the erection of three estates—King, Lords, and Commons—and no more. ”

“ The French Canadian party, who enjoyed a large majority in the legislative assembly, strongly desired to obtain control over certain duties imposed in 1774, and certain hereditary profits obtained by the crown from the sale of public lands. In 1831 the British parliament surrendered the former. They resolved to retain the latter, on which the French Canadians demanded that the legislative council of Lower Canada, then nominated by the governor, should be made elective. ”

“ All I can do is to assert that his lordship is very accurate; and, having made this assertion, I ask, what chance, therefore, is there of good government, if the power, or any portion of the power, be left in the hands of those who have in every way proved themselves so adverse to good government, and who have wound up such conduct by open rebellion.
The position of the Executive in Canada has, for a long while, been just what our position in this country would be if the House of Commons were composed of Chartist leaders. ”

“ We ought not to have two electoral bodies. Only one body, members to be elected once in every three years. Should have whole legislative power—subject to lieutenant-governor. I would have lieutenant-governors appointed by general government. It would thus bring these bodies into harmony with the general government. In Upper Canada executive officers would be attorney-general, treasurer, secretary, commissioner of crown lands and commissioner of public works. These would form the council of the lieutenant-governor. ”

“ While it is in alliance with the Liberal party of the Dominion and lends its support to the Liberal administration, it does so in the full conviction that the principles of that party are in the best interests of the country, and that the government at present in power is not only the best which could be chosen from our parliamentary representation, but in point of ability, honesty and progressiveness is equal, if not superior, to any which Canada has yet possessed. ”

“ Perhaps the most important difference was the retention of Cabinet or Responsible Government in the management of all our affairs, whether belonging to the Dominion or to the Provinces. Again, in the United States each State is free to make its own laws, so long as it does not go beyond the bounds of the Constitution; but in Canada it was agreed that the Governor-General, on the advice of his Ministers, should have the power to veto, or forbid from becoming law, any measure passed by the local Parliaments, if these measures were thought to be hurtful to the general welfare of the Dominion. ”

“ The first parliament of the new Dominion met in the autumn of 1867 in the new buildings at Ottawa—also chosen as the seat of government of the federation—and was probably the ablest body of men that ever assembled for legislative purposes within the limits of old or new Canada. In the absence of the legislation which was subsequently passed both in Ontario and Quebec against dual representation—or the election of the same representatives to both the Dominion parliament and the local legislatures—it comprised the leading public men of all parties in the two provinces in question. ”