Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Canada)

In Canada, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (French: Chef de l'opposition au Sénat) is the leader of the largest party in the Senate not in government.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Chef de l'opposition au Sénat
Incumbent Don Plett since November 5, 2019
Style	The Honourable
Member of	Senate of Canada
Appointer	Elected by the caucus of the official opposition in the Senate
Inaugural holder	Luc Letellier de St-Just
Formation	1 July 1867
Deputy	Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Salary	$186,900 (2017)[1]

Even though the position's name is very similar to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons (the Opposition House Leader), the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate's role is more analogous to the Leader of the Official Opposition because its holder is the leader of the party's Senate caucus. The responsibilities that, in the House of Commons, are done by the house leaders—including day-to-day scheduling of business—are undertaken in the Senate by Government and Opposition deputy leaders and Opposition whips.[2]

Selection

Since it is the House of Commons of Canada that determines what party(ies) form government, the size of party caucuses in the Senate bear no relation to which party forms the government side in the Senate and which party forms the opposition. Thus, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate may lead more Senators than the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Since, normally senators have longer tenure than MPs, this is often the case immediately following a change in government, until the new prime minister can appoint more people from their party.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate is not necessarily from the same party as the opposition in the House of Commons. From 1993 until 2003 the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate was a Progressive Conservative despite the fact the Progressive Conservatives were not the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. The Official Opposition in the Commons; (Bloc Québécois, Reform, Canadian Alliance) did not have Senate representation. This scenario repeated itself following the results of the 2011 election that saw the Liberal Party lose Official Opposition status in the House to the New Democratic Party — since the NDP has no representation in the Senate (and favours abolition of the chamber) the Liberals would form the Official Opposition in the Senate.

There are no set rules governing the manner in which the position is filled from within caucuses. When the Conservative Party and its predecessor the Progressive Conservative party have been in opposition, the party's Senate caucus has historically elected its own leader, although as noted by John Williams in a 1956 book on the Conservative party it may choose to follow the wishes of the national leader.[3]

Senator Jacques Flynn was unopposed in 1967 after being encouraged to seek the position by the then national leader Robert Stanfield.[4] However, Senators John Lynch Staunton in 1993[5] and Noël Kinsella in 2004[6] were elected by their colleagues over other contenders. In a November 10, 2015 Canadian Press story, Senator Claude Carignan referenced his election to the position of Senate Opposition Leader.[7] Senator Larry Smith was elected Senate Opposition Leader on March 28, 2017, defeating Senators Linda Frum and Stephen Greene in a vote of the Conservative Senate caucus.[8] On November 5, 2019, Senator Don Plett was elected by the Conservative caucus over Senator David Wells.[9]

The traditional practice of the Liberal party in opposition had been for their national leader to select their leader in the Senate.

On the morning of January 29, 2014, Justin Trudeau announced that Liberal Senators would no longer be members of the national Liberal caucus, and wrote to Senate Speaker Noël Kinsella to advise him that "Senators, who were previously members of the Liberal National Parliamentary Caucus, are no longer members of this Caucus, and as such, are independent Senators." (Debates of the Senate, January 29, 2014).

When the Senate met in the afternoon, the first order of business was a discussion of that status of the Liberal Senators, and that of their leader.

Senator Jim Cowan informed the Senate that the Liberal Senators remained Liberals, and that "when we met this morning following Mr. Trudeau's announcement, my colleagues voted to confirm our leadership team. Accordingly, I will continue to serve as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Senator Fraser was similarly elected to serve as deputy leader, Senator Munson as our caucus whip and Senator Hubley as deputy whip. As well, Senator Mitchell will continue as chair of our caucus." (Debates of the Senate, January 29, 2014).

Following a lengthy discussion, the Senate Speaker ruled that the Liberal Senators met the definition under the Senate rules of being a caucus of at least five Senators of the same political party, that the rules state that the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate is the head of the party other than the government party with the most Senators, and that "as has been indicated by Senator Cowan, he has been elected by his colleagues and, therefore, meets the definition of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate." (Debates of the Senate, January 29, 2014).

List of Leaders of the Opposition in the Senate

Name[10]		Party	Took Office	Left Office
	Luc Letellier de St-Just	Liberal	July 1, 1867	November 5, 1873
	Alexander Campbell	Conservative	November 7, 1873	October 8, 1878
	Sir Richard William Scott	Liberal	October 8, 1878	April 27, 1896
	Sir Mackenzie Bowell	Conservative	April 27, 1896	March 1, 1906
	Sir James Alexander Lougheed	Conservative	April 1, 1906	October 6, 1911
	Sir Richard John Cartwright	Liberal	October 6, 1911	September 24, 1912
	Sir George William Ross	Liberal	September 24, 1912	March 7, 1914
	Hewitt Bostock	Liberal	March 19, 1914	January 1, 1919
	Raoul Dandurand	Liberal	January 1, 1919	December 31, 1919
	Hewitt Bostock (2nd time)	Liberal	January 1, 1920	December 28, 1921
	Sir James Alexander Lougheed (2nd time)	Conservative	December 28, 1921	November 2, 1925
	William Benjamin Ross	Conservative	January 1, 1926	June 28, 1926
	Raoul Dandurand (2nd time)	Liberal	June 29, 1926	December 31, 1926
	William Benjamin Ross (2nd time)	Conservative	December 31, 1926	January 10, 1929
	Wellington Bartley Willoughby	Conservative	January 11, 1929	August 7, 1930
	Raoul Dandurand (3rd time)	Liberal	August 7, 1930	October 22, 1935
	Arthur Meighen	Conservative	October 22, 1935	January 16, 1942
	Charles Colquhoun Ballantyne	Conservative	January 16, 1942	December 10, 1942
		Progressive Conservative	December 11, 1942	September 11, 1945
	John Thomas Haig	Progressive Conservative	September 12, 1945	June 20, 1957
	William Ross Macdonald	Liberal	June 20, 1957	April 21, 1963
	Alfred Johnson Brooks	Progressive Conservative	April 22, 1963	October 31, 1967
	Jacques Flynn	Progressive Conservative	October 31, 1967	June 3, 1979
	Ray Perrault	Liberal	June 3, 1979	March 2, 1980
	Jacques Flynn (2nd time)	Progressive Conservative	March 3, 1980	September 16, 1984
	Allan MacEachen	Liberal	September 16, 1984	November 30, 1991
	Royce Herbert Frith	Liberal	November 30, 1991	October 25, 1993
	John Lynch-Staunton	Progressive Conservative	October 25, 1993	February 1, 2004
		Conservative	February 2, 2004	September 30, 2004
	Noël A. Kinsella	Conservative	October 1, 2004	February 7, 2006
	Dan Hays	Liberal	February 8, 2006	January 18, 2007
	Céline Hervieux-Payette	Liberal	January 18, 2007	November 3, 2008
	Jim Cowan	Liberal	November 3, 2008	January 29, 2014
		Senate Liberal Caucus	January 29, 2014	November 5, 2015
	Claude Carignan	Conservative	November 5, 2015	March 31, 2017
	Larry Smith	Conservative	April 1, 2017	November 5, 2019
	Don Plett	Conservative	November 5, 2019	incumbent

See also

• Representative of the Government in the Senate
• Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons (Canada)
• Leader of the Opposition (Canada)

References

1. "Indemnities, Salaries and Allowances". Parliament of Canada.
2. "Senate of Canada - Fact Sheet - Key roles in the Senate". Parl.gc.ca. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
3. John R. Williams, The Conservative Party of Canada 1920 to 1949, Duke University Press, 1956, pg. 193.
4. Jacques Flynn, Un Bleu du Québec à Ottawa, Editions Du Septentrion, 1998 pg. 207
5. Tories get new Senate leader; Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: December 15, 1993
6. Sean Gordon, Tories elect leader in Senate; National Post, September 30, 2004
7. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/conservative-senate-leader-vows-not-to-abuse-majority-to-thwart-trudeau-liberals-agenda
8. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/larry-smith-conservative-leader-senate-1.4044188
9. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-tories-elect-don-plett-as-new-opposition-leader-in-the-senate/
10. "Political Officers - Senate - Leaders of the Opposition 1867 to Date". Parliament of Canada.