User:Kek-9/Senate of Canada

The Senate of Canada (Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons and the head of state; the Prime Minister of Canada.

The composition and powers of the Senate, was set up in the Constitution of Canada with a composition of The Senate is composed of senators, each of whom represents a single state in its entirety, with each province and territory being equally represented by two senators, regardless of its population, being elected every second Canadian federal election and can only serve two consecutive terms; with 10 provinces and territories currently in the Union, there are 26 Canadian Senators. While the Senate is the upper house of Parliament and the House of Commons is the lower house, this does not imply the Senate is more powerful than the House of Commons. It merely entails that its members and officers outrank the members and officers of the Commons in the order of precedence for the purposes of protocol. As a matter of practice and custom, the Commons is the dominant chamber. The prime minister and Cabinet are responsible solely to the House of Commons and remain in office only so long as they retain the confidence of the House of Commons.

The approval of both chambers is necessary for legislation and, thus, the Senate can reject bills passed by the Commons. Between 1867 and 1987, the Senate rejected fewer than two bills per year, but this has increased in more recent years. . Although legislation can normally be introduced in either chamber, the majority of government bills originate in the House of Commons, with the Senate acting as the chamber of "sober second thought" (as it was called by Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister).

As the upper house, the Senate has several powers of advice and consent which are unique to it; these include the ratification of treaties and the confirmation of Cabinet ministers, Supreme Court justices, other federal executive officials, flag officers, regulatory officials and federal uniformed officers.

The presiding officer over the Senate is the Speaker of the Senate of Canada, which is Greg Welsh.

Chamber and symbols
The Senate of Canada and the House of Commons of Canada sit in separate chambers in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, located in Ottawa, Ontario.

The chamber in which the Senate sits is sometimes colloquially known as the Red Chamber, due to the red cloth that adorns the chamber, as well as the Throne. The red Senate chamber is lavishly decorated, in contrast with the more modest, green Commons chamber. This decorative scheme, consistent with the Canadian conception of the Westminster system, is modelled on the British Houses of Parliament, where the Lords chamber is a lavish room with red benches, whereas the Commons chamber is more sparsely decorated and is furnished in green.

There are chairs and desks on both sides of the chamber, divided by a centre aisle. The Speaker's chair is at one end of the chamber; in front of it is the Clerk's table. Various clerks sit at the table, ready to advise the Speaker and the senators on procedure when necessary. Members of the governing party sit on the benches to the Speaker's right, while members of the Opposition occupy the benches on the Speaker's left.



There are three seats in the front of the chambers:


 * The former Queen of Canada or the Governor General uses the seat with the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, this was discarded when the Queen and Governor General was abolished.
 * The second chair to the left is for the consort of the monarch or the viceregal consort. The seat has the coat of arms of the Princess Louise (at the time Marchioness of Lorne) (no helm or motto, as borne by a lady; the escutcheon is the arms of Queen Victoria with a label of three points, signifying a child of the Sovereign, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony (for Prince Albert, the Princess' father) and, instead of a crown, the coronet of a child of the Sovereign), this was also abolished following the abolishing of the Monarch.
 * The first two seats are vacant but present during the regular sitting of the Senate.
 * The Speaker of the Senate uses the third seat with the Arms of Canada. This seat is removed during the throne speech.

At either end of the chamber, on the second floor, are the visitors galleries, with total seating in stadium arrangement for 350. The north gallery's lower seating area, or tribune, is reserved for journalists.

The Canadian Heraldic Authority on April 15, 2008, granted the Senate, as an institution, a heraldic achievement composed of a depiction of the chamber's mace (representing the monarch's authority in the upper chamber) behind the escutcheon of the Royal Arms of Canada (representing the Queen, in whose name the Senate deliberates).

Qualifications
Under the Constitution of Canada and Elections Canada, it outlines that an individual must be 25 years or older on election day to become a senator, must be a Canadian citizen, must be a resident in Canada for more than 15 years with a residence in both Ottawa and their riding as well as file a nomination paper with an auditor general.