The Roles of the Senate in Historical Perspective

• Author: Gary William O'Brien
• Pages: 41-50

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The Roles of the Senate in

Historical Perspective

In Chapter , we saw the Founding Fathers purposely designing the

Senate as a hybrid institution consisting of three components: mixed

government, whereby the two houses have equal legislative power;

territorial, which focuses on representation and territorial protection;

and complementary, in which the upper house uses inf‌luence to

aect legislative change as opposed to con frontational political power.

e Fathers believed their “made-in-Canada” compromise was

workable. Although the models had dierent purposes, they were

linked. rough the discretionary and cautious exercise of constitu-

tional power, legislative trade-os could be bargained for to ensure

the Senate’s contribution to public policy would be positive for the

nation and for the regions.

is chapter will trace how these three models have played out

over the course of the Senate’s history. Given that the Fathers f‌irst

agreed on a territorial component, we will begin with examining

this characteristic of the Senate’s design and its impact on Canadian

federalism.