List of current senators of Canada

This is a list of current members of the Senate of Canada (French: Le Sénat du Canada), the upper house of the Canadian Parliament. Unlike the Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, the 105 senators are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister.[1] Senators originally held their seats for life; however, under the British North America Act, 1965, members may not sit in the Senate after reaching the age of 75. Prime ministers normally choose members of their own parties to be senators, though they sometimes nominate non-affiliated senators or members of opposing parties.

The Senate Chamber, located in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill

Seats are allocated on a regional basis, each of the four major regions receives 24 seats, and the remainder of the available seats being assigned to smaller regions. The four major regions are Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island), and the Western provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan). The seats for Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut are assigned apart from these regional divisions.[2] The province of Quebec has 24 Senate divisions that are constitutionally mandated. In all other provinces, a Senate division is strictly an optional designation of the senator's own choosing, and has no real constitutional or legal standing. A senator who does not choose a special senate division is considered a senator for the province at large.[2] The distribution of seats has been criticized for not being proportional per region. For example, Ontario has 40 percent of Canada's population but only 24 seats, while the smaller Atlantic provinces have a combined 30,[3] and British Columbia, the third most populous province, only has six seats.[4]

As of 9 April 2020, there are 97 sitting senators. Of the sitting senators: 50 are members of the Independent Senators Group, 21 are members of the senate caucus of the Conservative Party of Canada, 13 are members of the Canadian Senators Group, and 13 are officially designated as non-affiliated senators; however, the remaining 6 from the Progressive Senate Group have decided to unofficially align themselves together an unofficial parliamentary group.[5] Eight seats are currently vacant.[6]

The pattern of political affiliation in the Senate in the most recent era is distinct in several key respects from what has been the case historically. Since November 4, 2015, there has been no government caucus in the Senate because the Senate Liberal Caucus, which existed from 2014 until 2019, was not affiliated with the governing Liberal Party of Canada. On December 6, 2016, for the first time in Canadian history the number of senators without a partisan affiliation exceeded that of the largest caucus of senators with a partisan affiliation.

Active senators have been appointed on the advice of four different prime ministers: Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, and Jean Chrétien. George Furey is the longest-serving current senator; he was appointed on the advice of Jean Chretien in 1999. As of 14 August 2019, there are 45 women in the Senate.[7]