Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is planning one last appointment to fill 10 Senate vacancies before he leaves office in March, Radio-Canada reported.
These unelected members can serve until age 75, so the move will allow him to leave his mark on Congress for years to come.
Sources say the selection process for future senators has already begun and should be completed by the time of his resignation. After adjourning parliament earlier this month, Prime Minister Trudeau announced that he would leave government after the Liberal Party elects a new leader on March 9.
In a written response, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that the Senate Personnel Advisory Committee is working to recommend candidates for all vacancies.
PMO spokesman Simon LaFortune said: “The suspension of Parliament did not affect the ability of the Governor-General to make appointments to the Senate on the advice of the Prime Minister.” “The Prime Minister takes seriously his responsibility to appoint senators and will continue to do so for as long as he remains in office.”
Although the prime minister likes to praise the independence of the senators he has appointed since 2016, he has chosen several prominent Liberal MPs to serve in the upper house in recent years.
Pierre Poièvre’s Conservative Party, which leads in national polls, has long criticized Trudeau’s selection of senators. Conservatives now fear that Trudeau-appointed senators will try to block their policies if the party wins the next election, expected in the spring.
There are currently 12 Conservative senators in the 105-member House of Commons.
“For someone who advocated an independent Senate, [Trudeau] Ultimately it will be brought to the Senate by the majority Liberal party or by those who support his policies,” said Conservative senator Claude Carignan.
Carignan said Trudeau “has the power to appoint senators, but I don’t think he has the legitimacy to do so after he leaves office.”
When Prime Minister Trudeau took power in 2015, there were 22 vacancies in the Senate, but so far he has appointed a total of 90 senators. Due to retirement, there will be 10 vacancies as of February 2nd.
Increase in partisan appointments
Historically, Canadian senators have belonged to political parties. But in 2014, Prime Minister Trudeau expelled everyone from the then-opposition Liberal caucus, surprising Liberal senators.
After coming to power the following year, he changed the nomination process and asked the advisory committee to recommend candidates based on merit. These new senators were described as “independent” because they were not affiliated with any political party.
Still, a significant number of senators appointed in recent years have recent or significant partisan experience, most within the Liberal Party of Canada or provincial Liberal parties.
In recent years, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed former federal Liberal MPs Roger Kazner and Nancy Kaletak-Lindell to the Senate.
Former Liberal Party of Canada candidates have also been nominated, including Tracy Magri in 2024 and Bernadette Clement and Michel Audette in 2021.
As for the provincial Liberals, Trudeau is a former member of parliament from Quebec (Clément Gignac and Pierre Moreau), New Brunswick (Victor Boudreau and Joan Kingston), and Nova Scotia (Alistair Suret). was also appointed.
It also appointed Liberal Party donors and organizers, including Darryl Fridhandler in Alberta (2024) and Toni Vallone in Ontario (2023).
The prime minister also selects former donors and elected officials from other parties, but these numbers are fewer than Liberal supporters.
For example, Senator Mohammad Khair al-Zaybak has donated to the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, and New Democratic Party over the years. However, according to Elections Canada, the Ontario businessman has made 171 donations to the Liberal Party of Canada or Liberal candidates since 2004, compared to 171 donations to the Conservative Party or New Democratic Party during the same period. There were a total of 9 times.
Who will form an opposition party?
Senators agree that as unelected members they do not have the same democratic legitimacy as members of Parliament and must act accordingly when voting for or against government legislation. are.
Britain’s Salisbury Treaty, which dates back to the middle of the last century, states that unelected parliaments may not oppose government legislation that is the subject of a clear campaign promise.
Nevertheless, many senators appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau have said they will continue to act as they have under the current government and are prepared to uphold important principles such as protecting minority rights and regional interests. are.
Several senators have said they may object to the government applying the provisions preemptively to prevent an eventual charter challenge to either bill.
Poièvre said that if his party forms the next government, it is prepared to use “every means the constitution allows” to pass a criminal law. This statement was widely seen as a promise to use the notwithstanding clause to strengthen the justice system.
For now, 12 Conservative senators act as the official opposition party in the Senate, providing the Conservatives with certain funding required by the Parliament of Canada Act.
If the Conservatives come to power in the next election, another group of senators could form an opposition party.
However, it is not yet clear who wants to play this role. Several senators said they would wait for the results of the next election to decide the future of various groups of senators within the Senate.
“The question remains: How do independent senators decide to come together?” said Peter Harder, a former senior official who was appointed to the Senate in 2016.
But for Carignan, it would be inappropriate for a senator appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau to form an opposition group without joining a political party.
“If you want to act as an opposition party to the government while advocating independence, that’s going to be a big problem,” the Conservative senator said.
