Alberta Senate nominee elections
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Alberta is the only
Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
to hold elections for nominees to be appointed to the
Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...
. These elections are non-binding, as the appointment of senators is solely the responsibility of the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister. The process has ultimately resulted in ten elected nominees, five of whom have been appointed to the Senate.
Scott Tannas Scott Tannas (born February 25, 1962) is a Canadian senator and, since November 5, 2019, leader of the Canadian Senators Group, a parliamentary caucus. Tannas is the former President/CEO and founder of Western Financial Group (formerly Hi-Al ...
is the last elected nominee to still hold their Senate seat. The legislation enabling senate nominee elections initially expired in 2016, a new Act was passed in 2019 and nominee elections resumed in
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.


History

Senate nominee elections were initially held under the auspices of Alberta's ''Senatorial Selection Act'' of 1987, which was passed in response to a proposal under the Meech Lake Accord that would have required the federal government to appoint senators from lists provided by provincial governments. After the failure of the Meech Lake and subsequent Charlottetown Accords, the federal government continued its traditional practice of appointing senators of its own volition. In 1998, the federal government of Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
filled two vacancies in Alberta before an election could be held; the pro-Senate reform provincial government of Ralph Klein then amended the act to hold elections for Senate nominees in advance of vacancies. The amended ''Senatorial Selection Act'' required the government to predict how many Alberta vacancies may exist in the Senate (due to the mandatory retirement of senators at the age of 75) in the next six years. From 1998 onward, Senate nominees were elected for six-year terms as a protest to push for Senate reform. Whenever a vacancy arose in the Senate from Alberta, the Alberta government formally requested that the Prime Minister advise the Governor General to appoint the nominee. This request was only sometimes heeded:
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
and
Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political sci ...
recommended elected nominees for appointment, while
Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
, Paul Martin, and Justin Trudeau did not. No vacancies occurred during the Kim Campbell government. In May 2008, the government of Saskatchewan announced plans to hold similar elections, passing a law allowing for elections the following year. However, in 2013 the province abandoned its plans before holding any such elections, repealing the law and instead calling for the Senate to be abolished. The
New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...
formed government in Alberta after the 2015 election, and due to its long-standing policy supporting Senate abolition, allowed the ''Senatorial Selection Act'' to expire in 2016. Since taking office in 2015, the Trudeau government at the federal level formalized a new selection process for the Senate, which did not accommodate provincial Senate elections. Jason Kenney of the United Conservative Party restored Senate elections after winning the 2019 provincial election.


List of Senate nominee elections

*
1989 Alberta Senate nominee election The 1989 Alberta Senate nominee election, formally the 1st Alberta Senate nominee election of Alberta was held on October 16, 1989, to nominate appointments to the Senate of Canada. The Senate nominee election was held in conjunction with Alberta ...
— 1 nominee elected, province-wide single vote (stand-alone election) *
1998 Alberta Senate nominee election The 1998 Alberta Senate nominee election, formally the 2nd Alberta Senate nominee election of Alberta was held on October 19, 1998, to nominate appointments to the Senate of Canada. The Senate nominee election was held in conjunction with Alberta ...
— 2 nominees elected, province-wide block vote (stand-alone election) *
2004 Alberta Senate nominee election The 2004 Alberta Senate nominee election, formally the 3rd Alberta Senate nominee election of Alberta was held on November 22, 2004, to nominate appointments to the Senate of Canada. The Senate nominee election was held in conjunction with the 20 ...
— 4 nominees elected, province-wide block vote (alongside the
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
) *
2012 Alberta Senate nominee election The 2012 Alberta Senate nominee election, formally the 4th Senate nominee election of Alberta, was held to elect three nominees for appointment to the Senate of Canada to represent the province of Alberta. It was to be held in the fall of 2010 b ...
— 3 nominees elected, province-wide block vote (alongside the
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
) *
2021 Alberta Senate nominee election The 2021 Alberta Senate nominee election, formally the 5th Senate Nominee Election, was held in Alberta to help select (non-binding) nominees for appointment to represent Alberta in the Senate of Canada. The Senate election was held on October 18 ...
— 3 nominees elected, province-wide block voting (alongside municipal elections)


Participation

No political party has contested all of Alberta's Senate nominee elections. In 1989 and 1998, all of the seats up for election were won by the Reform Party of Alberta, a provincial counterpart to the Reform Party of Canada which was set up solely to run candidates in Senate nominee elections. It disbanded in 2004. The candidate of the governing Progressive Conservatives, Bert Brown, placed third in the inaugural election in 1989. This led the party to tacitly endorse the Reform candidates in 1998 rather than field its own. However, Progressive Conservatives would win most of the seats up for election in 2004 and 2012. Although the Alberta Liberal Party did run a candidate in the 1989 Senatorial election when an appointment was guaranteed, it refused to run any candidates in the 1998 and 2004 elections because that would have contradicted the policy of its federal counterpart. The
Alberta New Democrats The Alberta New Democratic Party (french: Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Alberta), commonly shortened to Alberta's NDP, is a social-democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. It is the provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democr ...
have never supported or contested Senate elections and refused to run candidates in this election – the
federal NDP The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal List of political parties in Canada, political party in Canada. Widely described as Social democracy, social democratic,The party is widely described as soci ...
consistently called for the Senate's complete abolition. The
Alberta Alliance The Alberta Alliance was a right wing provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Many of its members were supporters of the defunct Canadian Alliance federal political party and its predecessor, the Reform Party of Canada. Members also joined f ...
and its successor, the Wildrose Party, contested the 2004 and 2012 elections, but failed to win any seats. All four elections were contested by independent candidates, with
Link Byfield Eric Linkord Byfield (December 5, 1951 – January 24, 2015) was a Canadian news columnist, author, and politician. Columnist and writer Byfield was editor and publisher for the now defunct ''Alberta Report'' magazine for eighteen years.
winning the last senator-in-waiting seat up for grabs in 2004 (although he was never appointed to the Senate). The 2012 nominee election was also contested by one candidate from the Evergreen Party of Alberta.


Debate and controversies

Senate reform is popular in Western Canada, where the provinces are under-represented in the House of Commons due to representation by population. However, nationally, Alberta's Senate elections are controversial. Although
Stan Waters Lieutenant-general Stanley Charles Waters (June 14, 1920 – September 25, 1991) was Canada's first senator to be appointed to his Senate seat following a non-binding provincial Senate election. Early life Born in Winnipeg and educated at Stra ...
, elected in the first Senate election of 1989, was appointed to the Senate by then- Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn, on the advice of Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political sci ...
, in 1990, subsequently elected Senate nominees were not appointed until 2007 when another Conservative government was in power. Waters died in September 1991 and was replaced with the unelected Ron Ghitter, who wasn't even running in the Senate election, meaning an elected senator sat for only 15 months. Moreover, former Prime Minister Paul Martin said he would not recommend for appointment any nominees elected in this fashion because he does not support "piecemeal" Senate reform. Detractors of the Senate nominee election argue that it is a waste of time and money without federal co-operation, although proponents blame federal arrogance for causing the Senate elections to seem useless and argue that Alberta should be given credit for embarrassing the prime minister and refusing to allow the issue of Senate reform to be relegated to the back-burner. The cost of the election is estimated at $3 million by the Albertan government. In 2004, Bert Brown, Betty Unger and Cliff Breitkreuz, nominated by the Progressive Conservatives, and
Link Byfield Eric Linkord Byfield (December 5, 1951 – January 24, 2015) was a Canadian news columnist, author, and politician. Columnist and writer Byfield was editor and publisher for the now defunct ''Alberta Report'' magazine for eighteen years.
, an independent, won the election. The federal Liberal government then in office vowed to ignore the results. All six incumbents initially rejected calls to resign in order to make room for an "elected" appointment. Former Canadian prime minister
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
supported the election of senators. On April 17, 2007, veteran Liberal Senator Dan Hays announced he would retire from the Senate by the end of June. The next day, Harper announced that Bert Brown would fill Hays' seat. Then-Premier Ed Stelmach announced on April 29, 2010, that it was extending the terms of the three senators-in-waiting elected in 2004 beyond November 22, 2010, to December 2, 2013, unless elections were called earlier. The Government said the move would save Albertans the cost of the election. The announcement came two days after the federal government introduced Senate election legislation and urged the other provinces to follow Alberta's lead in Senate reform. Reaction from the incumbent senators-in-waiting was mixed. Independent
Link Byfield Eric Linkord Byfield (December 5, 1951 – January 24, 2015) was a Canadian news columnist, author, and politician. Columnist and writer Byfield was editor and publisher for the now defunct ''Alberta Report'' magazine for eighteen years.
panned the decision and has stated he would refuse an appointment without a new mandate. Betty Unger stated the term limits should be respected and fresh elections should be called that fall, though she was ultimately appointed without new elections in 2012. All three incumbents and other pundits agreed that the move was made to help the Progressive Conservatives avoid an election loss to the Wildrose Alliance.


Senate nominee election results


Nominees elected


Results by provincial party


Results by federal party


Notes


References


External links


Alberta Department of Intergovernmental, International and Aboriginal Relations - Senate Nominee Elections
{{Canada Elections Wikipedia articles in need of updating from April 2021 Senate * Senate of Canada Canadian senators-in-waiting from Alberta