List of Senate of Canada 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 Sir John A. Macdonald, John Thompson, Pierre Trudeau, 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.[1]	Lib- Con	L-U	NDP	L-P	Ind. Lib.	Ind. Cons.	Ind	Ref.	S.C.	#	%	#	%	#	%
Royal Proclamation		October 23, 1867		73	27[2]	37 [3]	8	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	45	61.6	27	36.9	1	1.2
	Macdonald	July 1, 1867	November 5, 1873	91	9	53[4]	25	—	—	—	1	1	1	—	—	78[4]	85.7	9	9.8	3	3.3
October 17, 1878		June 6, 1891
	Mackenzie	November 7, 1873	October 8, 1878	16	16[5]	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	16[5]	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	Abbott	June 16, 1891	November 24, 1892	6	—	5	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	Thompson	December 5, 1892	December 12, 1894	5	1	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4	80.0	1	20.0	0	0.0
	Bowell	December 21, 1894	April 27, 1896	13	—	9	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	13	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	Tupper	May 1, 1896	July 8, 1896	1	—	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	Laurier	July 11, 1896	October 6, 1911	81	80	—	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	—	80	98.8	0	0.0	1	1.2
	Borden	October 10, 1911	July 10, 1920	62	3	57	—	1	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	58[6]	93.6	3	4.8	0	0.0
	Meighen	July 10, 1920	December 29, 1921	15	—	13	—	1	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	14[6]	93.3	0	0.0	1	6.7
June 29, 1926		September 25, 1926
	King	December 29, 1921	June 28, 1926	103	102	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	—	—	103[7]	99.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
September 25, 1926		August 7, 1930
October 23, 1935		November 15, 1948
	Bennett	August 7, 1930	October 23, 1935	33	—	32	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	32	97.0	0	0.0	1	3.0
	St. Laurent	November 15, 1948	June 21, 1957	55	51	1	—	—	—	—	2	—	1	—	—	51	92.7	1	1.8	3	5.5
	Diefenbaker	June 21, 1957	April 22, 1963	37	—	36	—	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	36	97.3	0	0.0	1	2.7
	Pearson	April 22, 1963	April 20, 1968	39	38	—	—	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	—	38	97.4	0	0.0	1	2.6
	P. E. Trudeau	April 20, 1968	June 4, 1979	81	70	7	—	—	—	—	—	—	3	—	1	70	86.4	8[8]	9.9	3	3.7
March 3, 1980		June 30, 1984
	Clark	June 4, 1979	March 3, 1980	11	—	11	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	11	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	Turner	June 30, 1984	September 17, 1984	3	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	Mulroney	September 17, 1984	June 25, 1993	57	—	55	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	1[9]	—	55	96.4	1	1.8	1	1.8
	Campbell	June 25, 1993	November 4, 1993	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Chrétien	November 4, 1993	December 12, 2003	75	72	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3	—	—	72	96.0	0	0.0	3	4.0
	Martin	December 12, 2003	February 6, 2006	17	12	2	—	—	1[10]	—	—	2[11]	—	—	—	12	70.6	5	29.4	0	0.0
	Harper	February 6, 2006	November 4, 2015	59	—	59[12][13][14]	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	59	100.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
	J. Trudeau	November 4, 2015	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	7[15]	—	—	—	—	—	—	7	100.0

Notes

1. The Cons. column includes appointees who are members of the historical Conservative party (prior to 1942), the Progressive Conservative Party (1942-2003), and the Conservative Party of Canada (since 2003).
2. Includes Charles Cormier and Luc Letellier de St-Just, who sat as Nationalist Liberals. Also includes William Todd, who declined appointment.
3. Includes Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau and Edward Barron Chandler, who declined appointment.
4. Includes former Conservative MP Joseph Bolduc, who sat in the Senate as a Nationalist Conservative
5. 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.
6. Includes the Liberal-Unionist senator
7. Includes Liberal-Progressive Robert Forke
8. Includes Social Credit Senator Ernest Manning
9. Stanley Waters, who had been elected in the 1989 Alberta Senate nominee election.
10. 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.
11. Includes Nancy Ruth and Elaine McCoy who were appointed as senators for the defunct Progressive Conservatives. Ruth subsequently joined the Conservatives.
12. Two senators, Bert Brown and Betty Unger, had been elected in the 2004 Alberta Senate nominee election.
13. Payton, Laura (2013-01-25). "PM Harper appoints 5 new senators". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
14. Scott Tannas was appointed on March 25th, 2013, having been elected in the Alberta Senate nominee election, 2012.
15. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-profile-new-senators-1.3497132

References

• Parliament of Canada: Appointments to the Senate by Prime Minister