Representative of the Government in the Senate

The representative of the Government in the Senate () is the member of the Senate of Canada who is responsible for introducing, promoting, and defending the government's bills in the Senate after they are passed by the House of Commons. The representative is appointed by the prime minister.

The position replaced the leader of the Government in the Senate (), which from 1867 to 2015 was a senator who was a member of the governing party and led the government caucus in the Senate of Canada (whether or not that party held a majority in the Senate). The position of Leader had almost always been held by a Cabinet minister, except briefly in 1926, from 1958 to 1963 and from 2013 to the position being discontinued in 2015.

The government representative's counterpart on the Opposition benches is the leader of the Opposition in the Senate, who continues to be a member of the Official Opposition political party.

Senator Pierre Moreau has served as the third and most recent representative of the Government in the Senate since July 18, 2025.

History

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

Key:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; border:1px #aaf solid;"

! rowspan="2" |No.

! rowspan="2" | Portrait

! rowspan="2" width="200px" | Name

! colspan="2" | Term of office

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Party

! rowspan="2" width="100px" |Prime minister

! width="95"|

! colspan="8" |Leader of the Government in the Senate

|124x124px

|Alexander Campbell Senator for Cataraqui, Ontario (1822–1892)

|July 1, 1867

|November 5, 1873

| style="background:; " |

|width="100px"|Liberal-Conservative

|Sir John A. Macdonald (1st)

|103x103px

|Luc Letellier de St-Just Senator for Grandville, Quebec (1820–1881)

|November 5, 1873

|December 14, 1876

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="2" |Alexander Mackenzie (2nd)

|106x106px

|Richard William Scott Senator for Ottawa, Ontario (1825–1913)

|December 14, 1876

|October 7, 1878

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|(1)

|124x124px

|Sir Alexander Campbell Senator for Cataraqui, Ontario (1822–1892)

|October 18, 1878

|February 7, 1887

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

| rowspan="2" |Sir John A. Macdonald (3rd)

|-style="height:49px"

| rowspan="2" |4

| rowspan="2" |98x98px

| rowspan="2" |Sir John Abbott Senator for Inkerman, Quebec (1821–1893)

|May 12, 1887

|June 6, 1891

| rowspan="2" style="background:; " |

| rowspan="2" |Conservative

|June 16, 1891

|October 30, 1893

|Sir John Abbott (4th)

| rowspan="3" |5

| rowspan="3" |109x109px

| rowspan="3" |Sir Mackenzie Bowell Senator for Hastings, Ontario (1823–1917)

|October 31, 1893

|December 12, 1894

| rowspan="3" style="background:; " |

| rowspan="3" |Conservative

|Sir John Thompson (5th)

| rowspan="2" |December 21, 1894

| rowspan="2" |August 19, 1896

|Sir Mackenzie Bowell (6th)

|Sir Charles Tupper (7th)

|106x106px

|Sir Oliver Mowat Senator for Ontario (1820–1903)

|August 19, 1896

|November 18, 1897

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="4" |Sir Wilfrid Laurier (8th)

|115x115px

|David Mills Senator for Bothwell, Ontario (1831–1903)

|November 18, 1897

|February 7, 1902

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|(3)

|106x106px

|Sir Richard William Scott Senator for Ottawa, Ontario (1825–1913)

|February 7, 1902

|January 20, 1909

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|106x106px

|Sir Richard John Cartwright Senator for Oxford, Ontario (1835–1912)

|January 20, 1909

|October 10, 1911

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="3" |9

| rowspan="3" |105x105px

| rowspan="3" |Sir James Alexander Lougheed Senator for Calgary, Alberta (1854–1925)

| rowspan="3" |October 10, 1911

| rowspan="3" |December 28, 1921

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

| rowspan="2" |Sir Robert Borden (9th and 10th)

| style="background:; " |

|Unionist

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

|Arthur Meighen (11th)

|10

|120x120px

|Raoul Dandurand Senator for De Lorimier, Quebec (1861–1942)

|December 29, 1921

|June 28, 1926

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|William Lyon Mackenzie King (12th)

|11

|William Benjamin Ross Senator for De Lorimier, Quebec (1855–1929)

|June 28, 1926

|September 24, 1926

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

|Arthur Meighen (13th)

|(10)

|120x120px

|Raoul Dandurand Senator for De Lorimier, Quebec (1861–1942)

|September 25, 1926

|August 6, 1930

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|William Lyon Mackenzie King (14th)

|12

|Wellington Willoughby Senator for Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (1859–1932)

|August 7, 1930

|February 3, 1932

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

| rowspan="2" |R. B. Bennett (15th)

|13

|101x101px

|Arthur Meighen Senator for St. Mary's, Ontario (1874–1960)

|February 3, 1932

|October 22, 1935

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

|(10)

|120x120px

|Raoul Dandurand Senator for De Lorimier, Quebec (1861–1942)

|October 23, 1935

|March 11, 1942

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="3" |William Lyon Mackenzie King (16th)

|14

|127x127px

|James Horace King Senator for Kootenay East, British Columbia (1873–1955)

|May 26, 1942

|August 24, 1945

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|-style="height:35px"

| rowspan="2" |15

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" |Wishart McLea Robertson Senator for Shelburne, Nova Scotia (1891–1967)

| rowspan="2" |August 24, 1945

| rowspan="2" |October 14, 1953

| rowspan="2" style="background:; " |

| rowspan="2" |Liberal

| rowspan="2" |Louis St. Laurent (17th)

|16

|115x115px

|William Ross Macdonald Senator for Brantford, Ontario (1891–1976)

|October 14, 1953

|June 20, 1957

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|17

|John Thomas Haig Senator for Winnipeg, Manitoba (1877–1962)

|October 9, 1957

|May 11, 1958

| style="background:; " |

|Progressive Conservative

| rowspan="3" |John Diefenbaker (18th)

|18

|Walter Aseltine Senator for Windsor-Walkerville, Ontario (1903–1992)

|April 20, 1968

|August 7, 1974

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="2" |Pierre Trudeau (20th)

|22

|Ray Perrault Senator for North Shore-Burnaby, British Columbia (1926–2008)

|August 8, 1974

|June 3, 1979

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|23

|Jacques Flynn Senator for Rougemont, Quebec (1915–2000)

|June 4, 1979

|March 2, 1980

| style="background:; " |

|Progressive Conservative

|Joe Clark (21st)

|(22)

|Ray Perrault Senator for North Shore-Burnaby, British Columbia (1926–2008)

|March 3, 1980

|September 29, 1982

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="2" |Pierre Trudeau (22nd)

|24

|118x118px

|Bud Olson Senator for Alberta South, Alberta (1925–2002)

|September 30, 1982

|June 29, 1984

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|25

|122x122px

|Allan MacEachen Senator for Highlands-Canso, Nova Scotia (1921–2017)

|June 30, 1984

|September 16, 1984

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|John Turner (23rd)

|26

|Dufferin Roblin Senator for Red River, Manitoba (1917–2010)

|September 17, 1984

|June 29, 1986

| style="background:; " |

|Progressive Conservative

| rowspan="2" |Brian Mulroney<nowiki/> (24th)

|-style="height:35px"

| rowspan="2" |27

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" |Lowell Murray Senator for Pakenham, Ontario (born 1936)

| rowspan="2" |June 30, 1986

| rowspan="2" |November 3, 1993

| rowspan="2" style="background:; " |

| rowspan="2" |Progressive Conservative

|Kim Campbell (25th)

|28

|Joyce Fairbairn Senator for Lethbridge, Alberta (1939–2022)

|November 4, 1993

|June 10, 1997

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

| rowspan="4" |Jean Chrétien (26th)

|29

|Alasdair Graham Senator for The Highlands, Nova Scotia (1929–2015)

|June 11, 1997

|October 3, 1999

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|30

|Bernie Boudreau Senator for Nova Scotia (born 1944)

|October 4, 1999

|January 8, 2001

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|31

|Sharon Carstairs Senator for Manitoba (born 1942)

|January 9, 2001

|December 11, 2003

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|32

|120x120px

|Jack Austin Senator for Vancouver South, British Columbia (born 1932)

|December 12, 2003

|February 6, 2006

| style="background:; " |

|Liberal

|Paul Martin (27th)

|33

|98x98px

|Marjory LeBreton Senator for Ontario (born 1940)

|February 6, 2006

|July 14, 2013

| style="background:; " |

|Conservative

| rowspan="2" |Stephen Harper (28th)

|34

|Claude Carignan Senator for Stadacona, Quebec (born 1950)

|January 24, 2020

|June 30, 2025

| style="background:; " |

|Non-affiliated