Senate of Canada

The Senate of Canada (French: Sénat du Canada) is the upper chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Canada, the legislative branch of the Canadian federal government. The lower chamber of Parliament is the House of Commons. The Senate of Canada consists of 37 seats: two for each province and territory and one representing the federal capital district of Ottawa.

An elected member of the Senate is called a "senator" (sénateur/sénatrice); senators are directly elected by all eligible voters of their constituency, namely a province, territory or Ottawa. Each province and territory has a junior senator and a senior senator, the difference being that the senior senator has been in office longer than the junior senator; Ottawa only has one senator, who is simply referred to as the "Ottawa senator". Senators are elected every six years, and may serve an unlimited amount of consecutive terms, although Senate elections happen every three years as the junior senators are elected three years apart from the senior senators and the Ottawa senator.