As Leader of the Government Early Canadian cabinets included several senators who would be answerable to the Senate for government actions, one of whom would serve as de facto government leader in the Senate. In the nineteenth century, it was not considered unusual for a senator to be
Prime Minister. Sir
John Joseph Caldwell Abbott and Sir
Mackenzie Bowell served as prime minister from the Senate. Abbott and Bowell both found it difficult to lead the government from the Senate, however, and over time, the perceived legitimacy of the Senate declined. Today, it is rare for senators to occupy prominent positions in cabinet. From 1935 on, it was typical for a cabinet to have only one senator who would have the position of
minister without portfolio alongside the position of leader of the government in the Senate. There have been a few rare occasions when the leader of the government in the Senate was not included in the cabinet by virtue of a separate ministerial appointment, such as
William Benjamin Ross who served in the position in 1926, and
Walter Morley Aseltine and
Alfred Johnson Brooks who were not included in the cabinets of Prime Minister
John Diefenbaker from 1958-1963. In 1968, the position of leader of the government in the Senate became an official Cabinet position in its own right with the appointment of
Paul Martin, Sr. (father of Canada's future prime minister,
Paul Martin). From July 2013, under Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, the government leader in the Senate was again a non-cabinet minister. Occasionally, senators still hold senior cabinet positions (other than the leader of the government in the Senate) in order to ensure regional balance in cabinet if the governing party is unable to elect members in a particular region or province, e.g., when the
Progressive Conservative Party formed the government under the leadership of
Joe Clark in 1979, and when the
Liberal Party formed the government under the leadership of
Pierre Trudeau in 1980. However, it is usually the case that the leader of the government in the Senate is the sole senator serving in Cabinet. The responsibilities of the leader of the government in the Senate include: • Planning and managing the government's legislative program in the Senate • Answering all questions for the government during the Senate's
Question Period • Maintaining relations with the
opposition on all matters concerning Senate activities • Working with the
leader of the Government in the House of Commons to ensure the effective coordination of the government's legislative programme. The government side in the Senate is the party that forms the government in the
House of Commons. This means that the government party in the Senate may have fewer seats than the opposition, particularly when a general election results in a new party forming government.
As Representative of the Government Due to former Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau's 2014 decision to remove senators from the
Liberal Party of Canada caucus, leaving them all effectively sitting as
independent senators, Trudeau named a Representative of the Government in the Senate in the
42nd Canadian Parliament rather than a government leader. The situation created some uncertainty about how the Senate would function, and how government legislation would be brought to the Senate. On November 29, 2019, the
Prime Minister's office announced that Senator
Harder would be stepping down from his position as Representative of the Government in the Senate effective December 31, 2019. Gold served from January 24, 2020 until June 30, 2025, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. ==Office holders==