Partisan advocate for new non-partisan arrangement Harder was among Trudeau's this first batch of senate nominations announced in March 2016. The seven nomination were the earliest senators appointments based on the recommendations of the
Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments. Harder was sworn into office on March 23, a week ahead of the other six new senators in the same announcement, making him the first senator of the notionally non-partisan era. In the same announcement of Harder's appointment to the upper house, Trudeau also named him the inaugural
Representative of the Government in the Senate, a new role to discharge the functions formerly associated with the cabinet position
Leader of the Government in the Senate. While the new role does not come with a seat in the cabinet, Harder was sworn of the
Privy Council on April 6, 2016. With all Liberal senators expelled by Trudeau a few years earlier, there was no longer a government caucus for Harder to marshal in support of the government's legislative initiatives. The following month, Harder recruited Conservative Senator
Diane Bellemare, a former economic policy adviser and
electoral candidate of the defunct
Action Démocratique du Québec, as deputy government representative and Senator
Grant Mitchell, a senator appointed by
Paul Martin with extensive reach in the
Liberal Party and a reputation as a partisan organizer, as the Government Liaison. Harder portrayed those roles as "technically" the deputy government leader and government chief
whip in the senate. As the first government senate leader without a government caucus to lead, Harder and his small Government Representative Office team had the unenviable task of marshalling government business without troops to marshal, building while test-driving a new arrangement for the exercise of government's legislative power within an institution deeply rooted in partisan
Westminster traditions. Given vast majority of the Senators were partisan appointees of previous governments, his team's debut in the Senate was subjected to fire from both sides of the Senate aisle. while imploring senators for their corporation in the name of efficiency. Harder's hands as the government's representative was strengthened quickly as Trudeau rapidly filled the more than 20 pre-existing senate vacancies with independent senators who entered the chamber with the expectation of working in the new arrangement. The government still faces push back on some of its key initiatives however. In the final weeks of sittings of the
42nd Parliament, the government's
Oil Tanker Moratorium Act came within three votes of being defeated in the senate, while the
Impact Assessment Act and Canadian Energy Regulator Act endured many amendments that the government deemed unacceptable. Following the Liberals re-election in
2019 federal election with a reduced minority mandate, the
Prime Minister's office announced in late November that Harder and Mitchell would be relinquishing their roles representing the government in the senate at the end of 2019. (
Bellemare had already relinquished her role by that point and joined the
Independent Senator Group.) Harder was succeeded by constitutional law scholar the
Senator Marc Gold.
Concerns with majoritarianism On May 14, 2020, Harder joined the
Progressive Senate Group, a group composed largely of former Liberal senators at the time. Explaining his move, Harder said he was concerned that partisanship in the Senate had been replaced by "majoritarianism" as the
Independent Senators Group became the largest caucus, and wanted to be "part of a bulwark against that." He was chair of the
Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament and deputy chair of the
Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in the
45th Canadian Parliament. Harder faces mandatory retirement from the Senate in 2027. ==Awards==