alternatehistory.com

The Senate of Canada has become, following the constitutional patriation, an increasingly important part of the legislative process. Following patriation, half of all seats would be appointed by the provincial premiers (although technically more seats are appointed by the federal government, owing to the prime minister being the one to advise the governor-general on whom to appoint to represent each territory), giving provinces a voice, muted as it may be, directly towards federal legislation.


Infobox depicts the Senate composition as of January 20, 2017

The change in the appointment of senators would also allow groups that would normally never have had senators under the old system of de facto prime ministerial patronage to be represented- the Union du Québéc soon became the first party to have more senators than MPs following its wipeout in the 1996 elections. The New Democratic Party, which found itself able to appoint senators as a result of its control over western provinces like Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, faced an internal battle over whether to appoint senators and renege on the party's long-time position on Senate abolition or to leave the seats empty for years at a time and leave the provinces underrepresented in the upper chamber. The party's solution was a compromise: it allowed its provincial wings to appoint members of the NDP as "Independent New Democrats"- technically party members but who did not take marching orders from the party leadership.

While government ministers since the MacEachan ministry have grumbled that the changes and resulting diversity in Senate composition have made it more difficult to pass legislation, in truth the Senate is still subservient to the House of Commons even compared to the British House of Lords, but has in the past decade-and-a-half, become more assertive in forcing governments of the day to revise legislation or even rejecting it altogether...