Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he will “take into account” the advice of an independent advisory body to fill a number of vacancies in the Senate — though he didn’t say explicitly how that will impact his decisions on appointments.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau upended 150 years of Canadian parliamentary tradition when he dumped Liberal senators, named Independents to the upper chamber and generally stripped the place of its partisan elements.
Trudeau set up the advisory committee to accept applications for Senate spots, and to make recommendations for those appointments.
Since taking office, Carney hasn’t said how he will treat Senate appointments. The prime minister gave only a brief response on Wednesday when asked if he would follow the same process as Trudeau, or return to appointing partisan Liberals to the upper chamber.
“We will be appointing senators in due course and I will take into account the advice of the independent advisory committee that was established by my predecessor,” he said.
Carney has yet to appoint a single senator, and vacancies in the Red Chamber have piled up over the last year. Currently nine Senate seats sit vacant, and more are expected to open up in the coming months.
The advisory committee, like the Senate, is also lacking members, to the point of being almost entirely vacant.
The committee is meant to be composed of three federal members and two members from each of the provinces and territories. As it stands, only the three federal positions and the two Nova Scotia spots are filled.
Carney didn’t explicitly say how he would use the committee’s advice. While the committee makes recommendations for Senate appointments, that advice is non-binding.
Conservatives have argued that even though Trudeau’s appointments were slated as independent, they often skewed progressive.
“That application process has always been fake. They should return to what we used to do,” Conservative Sen. Denis Batters told reporters on Wednesday morning.
The Senate adopted new rules in 2024 that sought to entrench some of the independence it gained during Trudeau’s government.
Those rules gave more power to each of the groups that now have recognized status in the Senate — the Progressive Senate Group, Canadian Senators Group and Independent Senators Group.
Rather than mimicking the dual roles of government and Opposition in the House of Commons, the Senate now gives additional groups similar powers and additional speaking time during debates.
The leaders of recognized groups, which now outnumber the Conservatives in the Senate, can now defer votes on legislation and sit in on committees to question witnesses.
