Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislature of Canada. The Crown, along with two chambers: the Senate and the House of Commons, form the bicameral legislature.
The 343 members of the lower house, the House of Commons, are styled as Members of Parliament, and each elected to represent an electoral district. The 105 members of the upper house, the Senate, are styled senators and appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Collectively, MPs and senators are known as parliamentarians.
Bills may originate in either the House of Commons or the Senate, however, bills involving raising or spending funds must originate in the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, and following the Westminster system of government, the House of Commons is dominant, with the Senate rarely opposing its will. The Crown provides royal assent to make bills into law. The federal fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.
The governor general, on the advice of the prime minister, summons and calls together the House of Commons, and may prorogue or dissolve Parliament, in order to either end a parliamentary session or call a general election. The governor general also delivers the throne speech at the opening of each new Parliament.
The election for the 45th Canadian Parliament was held on 28 April 2025, resulting in a Liberal minority government.
Composition
The body consists of the King of Canada, represented by a viceroy, the governor general; an upper house, the Senate; and a lower house, the House of Commons. Each element has its own officers and organization. Each has a distinct role, but work in conjunction within the legislative process. This format was inherited from the United Kingdom and is a near-identical copy of the Parliament at Westminster, the greatest differences stemming from situations unique to Canada, such as the impermanent nature of the monarch's residency in the country and the lack of a peerage to form the upper chamber.Only those who sit in the House of Commons are usually called members of Parliament ; the term is not usually applied to senators, even though the Senate is a part of Parliament. Though legislatively less powerful, senators take higher positions in the national order of precedence. No individual may serve in more than one chamber at the same time.
Monarch
The sovereign's place in the legislature, formally known as the King-in-Parliament, is defined by the Constitution Act, 1867, and various conventions. Neither he nor his viceroy, however, participates in the legislative process save for signifying the King's approval to a bill passed by both houses of Parliament, known as royal assent, which is necessary for a bill to be enacted as law. All federal bills thus begin with the phrase "Now, therefore, His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows ..." and, as such, the Crown is immune from acts of Parliament unless expressed otherwise in the act itself. The governor general normally grants royal assent, though the monarch may also do so, at the request of either the Cabinet or the viceroy, who may defer assent to the sovereign as per the constitution.As both the monarch and his or her representatives are traditionally barred from the House of Commons, any parliamentary ceremonies in which they are involved take place in the Senate chamber. The upper and lower houses do, however, each contain a mace, which indicates the authority of the King-in-Parliament and the privilege granted to that body by him, both bearing a crown at their apex. The original mace for the Senate was that used in the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada after 1849, while that of the House of Commons was inherited from the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, first used in 1845. Following the burning of the Centre Block on 3 February 1916, the City of London, England, donated a replacement, which is still used today. The temporary mace, made of wood, and used until the new one arrived from the United Kingdom in 1917, is still carried into the Senate each 3 February. The Senate's 1.6-metre-long mace comprises brass and gold. The Senate may not sit if its mace is not in the chamber; it typically sits on the table with the crown facing the throne, though it may, during certain ceremonies, be held by the mace bearer, standing adjacent to the governor general or monarch in the Senate.
Members of the two houses of Parliament must also express their loyalty to the sovereign and defer to his authority, as the Oath of Allegiance must be sworn by all new parliamentarians before they may take their seats. Further, the official opposition is formally called His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, to signify that, though they may be opposed to the incumbent Cabinet's policies, they remain dedicated to the apolitical Crown.
Senate
The upper house of the Parliament of Canada, the Senate, is a group of 105 individuals appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister; all those appointed must, per the constitution, be a minimum of 30 years old, be a subject of the monarch, and own property with a net worth of at least $4,000, in addition to owning land worth no less than $4,000 within the province the candidate seeks to represent. Senators served for life until 1965, when a constitutional amendment imposed a mandatory retirement age of 75. Senators may, however, resign their seats prior to that mark, and can lose their position should they fail to attend two consecutive sessions of Parliament.The principle underlying the Senate's composition is equality amongst Canada's geographic regions : 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 24 for the Maritimes, and 24 for the Western provinces. Additionally, senators are appointed from two geographic areas not part of any senatorial division. Newfoundland and Labrador, is represented by six senators. Since 1975 each of Canada's territories is represented by 1 senator—the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut. An additional 4 or 8 senators may be appointed by the governor general, provided the approval of the King is secured and the four divisions are equally represented. This power has been employed once since 1867: to ensure the passage of the bill establishing the Goods and Services Tax, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney advised Queen Elizabeth II to appoint extra senators in 1990. This results in a temporary maximum number of senators of 113, which must through attrition return to its normal number of 105.
House of Commons
The elected component of the Canadian Parliament is the House of Commons, with each member chosen by a plurality of voters in each of the country's federal electoral districts, or ridings. To run for one of the 343 seats in the House of Commons, an individual must be a Canadian citizen and at least 18 years old. Each member holds office until Parliament is dissolved, after which they may seek re-election. The ridings are regularly reorganized according to the results of each decennial national census; however, the "senatorial clause" of the Constitution Act, 1867 guarantees each province at least as many MPs as it has senators, and the "grandfather clause" permits each province as many MPs as it had in either 1976 or 1985. The existence of this legislation has pushed the size of the House of Commons above the required minimum of 282 seats.Jurisdiction
The powers of the Parliament of Canada are limited by the constitution, which divides legislative abilities between the federal and provincial legislatures; in general, provincial legislatures may only pass laws relating to topics explicitly reserved for them by the constitution while any matter not under the exclusive authority of the provincial legislatures is within the scope of the federal Parliament's power. Thus, Parliament alone can pass laws relating to, among other things, the postal service, census, military, navigation and shipping, fishing, currency, banking, weights and measures, bankruptcy, copyrights, patents, First Nations, and naturalization. In some cases, however, the jurisdictions of the federal and provincial parliaments may be more vague. For instance, the federal parliament regulates marriage and divorce in general, but the solemnization of marriage is regulated only by the provincial legislatures. Other examples include the powers of both the federal and provincial parliaments to impose taxes, borrow money, punish crimes, and regulate agriculture.The powers of Parliament are also limited by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, though most of its provisions can be overridden by use of the notwithstanding clause. Such clause, however, has never been used by the federal parliament, though it has been employed by some provincial legislatures. Laws violating any part of the constitution are invalid and may be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
Officers
Each of Parliament's two chambers is presided over by a speaker; that for the Senate is a member appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister, while the equivalent for the House of Commons is a member of Parliament, who is elected by the other members of that body. In general, the powers of the latter are greater than those of the former. Following the British model, the upper chamber is essentially self-regulating, but the lower chamber is controlled by the chair, in a majoritarian model that gives great power and authority to the chair. In 1991, however, the powers of the speaker of the Senate were expanded, which reorganized the balance of power to be closer to the framework of the Commons.File:Kevin MacLeod in Canadian Senate Chamber 2009.jpg|thumb|Usher of the black rod, Kevin S. MacLeod, before the thrones in the Senate chamber, 2009
The usher of the black rod of the Senate of Canada is the most senior protocol position in Parliament, being the personal messenger to the legislature of the sovereign and governor general. The usher is also a floor officer of the Senate responsible for security in that chamber, as well as for protocol, administrative, and logistical details of important events taking place on Parliament Hill, such as the Speech from the Throne, Royal Assent ceremonies, state funerals, or the investiture of a new governor general.
Other officers of Parliament include the auditor general, chief electoral officer, official languages commissioner, privacy commissioner, information commissioner, conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, public sector integrity commissioner, and commissioner of lobbying. These individuals are appointed by either one or both houses, to which they report through the speaker of that house. They are sometimes referred to as Agents of Parliament. Another key official is the parliamentary librarian, a position established in 1871 under the Library of Parliament Act, charged with directing the Library of Parliament.