List of Canadian Senate appointments by prime minister

This is a list of Canadian Senate appointments during a prime minister's tenure. Members of the Canadian Senate are appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the recommendation of his or her prime minister. This list is broken-down by party, and further sorted into three categories: senators appointed who sat in the government caucus, senators appointed who sat in opposition caucuses, and senators appointed who sat in neither.

Only Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, Sir John A. Macdonald, John Thompson, and Paul Martin recommended with any frequency the appointment of senators belonging to opposition parties; all together, only six opposition senators have been appointed on the recommendation of other prime ministers. Of those six, only four have been from the party forming the Official Opposition. Of those four, three were appointed on the recommendation of Prime Minister Robert Borden, who was trying to create a cross-party coalition National Government during World War I. The other appointment was made on the recommendation of Louis St. Laurent, upon the advice of his strategists, as the PC Party was in danger of losing official party status in the Senate by dropping below five seats. No other prime minister advised the appointment of opposition senators, and one, Kim Campbell, recommended none.

Prime Minister Term(s) Total Party Government Opposition Non-Partisan
From To Lib. Cons. NDP L-P L-U Ind.
Lib.		 Ind.
Cons.		 Ind. #  % #  % #  %
Royal Proclamation 1867-10-23 73 27[1] 45 [2] — — — — — 0 1 0
   Macdonald 1867-07-01 1873-11-05 91 10 78 [3] — — — — — 1 1 1 78[3] 85.7 10 11.0 3 3.3
1878-10-17 1891-06-06
   Mackenzie 1873-11-07 1878-10-08 16 16[4] — — 0 — — — — 0 0 0 16[4] 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0
   Abbott 1891-06-16 1892-11-24 6 0 6 — 0 — — — — 0 0 0 6 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0
   Thompson 1892-12-05 1894-12-12 5 1 4 — 0 — — — — 0 0 0 4 80.0 1 20.0 0 0.0
   Bowell 1894-12-21 1896-04-27 13 0 13 — 0 — — — — 0 0 0 13 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0
   Tupper 1896-05-01 1896-07-08 1 0 1 — 0 — — — — 0 0 0 1 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0
   Laurier 1896-07-11 1911-10-06 81 80 — — 0 — — — — 1 0 0 80 98.8 0 0.0 1 1.2
   Borden 1911-10-10 1920-07-10 62 3 57 — 0 — — — 1 0 1 0 58[5] 93.6 3 4.8 1 1.6
   Meighen 1920-07-10 1921-12-29 15 - 13 — — — 0 1 0 0 1 14[5] 93.3 0 0.0 1 6.7
1926-06-29 1926-09-25
   King 1921-12-29 1926-06-29 103 102 — — 0 — 0 1 0 0 0 0 102 99.0 1 1.0 0 0.0
1926-09-25 1930-08-06
1935-10-23 1948-11-15
   Bennett 1930-08-07 1935-10-23 33 0 32 — 0 — 0 — — 0 0 1 32 97.0 0 0.0 1 3.0
   St. Laurent 1948-11-15 1957-06-21 55 51 1 — 0 — 0 — — 2 0 1 51 92.7 1 1.8 3 5.5
   Diefenbaker 1957-06-21 1963-04-22 37 0 36 0 0 — 0 — — 0 1 0 36 97.3 0 0.0 1 2.7
   Pearson 1963-04-22 1968-04-20 39 38 — 0 0 — 0 — — 1 0 0 38 97.4 0 0.0 1 2.6
   Trudeau 1968-04-20 1979-06-04 81 70 — 0 — 1 — 7 0 3 70 86.4 8 9.9 3 3.7
1980-03-03 1984-06-30
   Clark 1979-06-04 1980-03-03 11 0 11 0 0 — 0 — — 0 0 0 11 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0
   Turner 1984-06-30 1984-09-17 3 3 — 0 0 — 0 — — 0 0 0 3 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0
   Mulroney 1984-09-17 1993-06-25 57 0 55 0 0 1[6] 0 — — 0 0 1 55 96.4 1 1.8 1 1.8
   Campbell 1993-06-25 1993-11-04 0 0 — 0 0 0 — — — 0 0 0 0 — 0 — 0 —
   Chrétien 1993-11-04 2003-12-11 75 72 — 0 0 0 — — — 0 0 3 72 96.0 0 0.0 3 4.0
   Martin 2003-12-12 2006-02-06 17 12 2 1[7] — — — 2 0 0 12 70.6 5 29.4 0 0.0
   Harper 2006-02-06 — 41 0 41[8] 0 — — — — — 0 0 0 41 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0

Notes

  1. ^ Includes Charles Cormier and Luc Letellier de St-Just, who sat as Nationalist Liberals. Also includes William Todd, who declined appointment.
  2. ^ Includes Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau and Edward Barron Chandler, who declined appointment.
  3. ^ a b Includes former Conservative MP Joseph Bolduc, who sat in the Senate as a Nationalist Conservative
  4. ^ a b Includes the former Liberal MPs William Henry Brouse, who sat as a Reformer, and Christian Henry Pozer, who sat as a Nationalist, as well as Hector Fabre, who also sat in the Senate as a Nationalist.
  5. ^ a b Includes the Liberal-Unionist Senator
  6. ^ Stanley Waters, who had been elected in the 1989 Alberta Senate nominee election.
  7. ^ Lillian Dyck, who was not recognized as a New Democratic Party senator by the New Democratic Party. She joined the Liberal caucus in January 2009.
  8. ^ One Senator, Bert Brown, had been elected in the 2004 Alberta Senate nominee election.

References