Portal:Canada/Selected article/10
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The Senate of Canada (French: Le Sénat du Canada) is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign (represented by the Governor General) and the House of Commons. The Senate and the House of Commons sit in separate chambers on Parliament Hill, which is located in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Seats are assigned on a regional basis, with each region receiving twenty-four seats. The regions are: Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and the Western provinces. The seats for Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut are assigned apart from these regional divisions. Senators serve until they reach the age of seventy-five.
The Senate is referred to as the "upper house" of Parliament, and the House of Commons is sometimes referred to as the "lower house." This does not, however, imply the Senate is more powerful than the House of Commons, merely that its members and officers outrank the members and officers of the House of Commons in the order of precedence for the purposes of protocol. Indeed, as a matter of practice and custom, the Commons is by far the dominant chamber and is more intimately referred to as "the other place." Although the approval of both Houses is necessary for legislation, the Senate rarely rejects bills passed by the directly elected Commons. Moreover, the government is responsible solely to the House of Commons; the Prime Minister and Cabinet stay in office only as long as he or she retains the support of the lower house. The Senate does not exercise any such control. Although legislation can normally be introduced in either house, the majority of government bills originate in the House of Commons. Under the constitution, money bills must always originate in the lower house.
The chamber in which the Senate sits is sometimes called the red chamber, due to the red cloth that adorns the chamber (and notably, the Throne); it is a contrast to the green used in the House of Commons. This is inherited from the British Houses of Parliament, where the Lords chamber is a lavish room with red benches, whereas the Commons chamber is a sparsely-decorated room with green benches.
