January 29, 2014 - 12:50 PM
OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has kicked Liberal senators out of the party caucus, describing the move as a significant step forward in the evolution of the Senate. Here's a list of some others:
1867 — The British North American Act, which creates Canada, provides for an upper house of members, appointed for life. The Senate first sits on Nov. 16.
1870-1905 — As new provinces join the country, the Senate expands to 87 members.
1915 — A constitutional reorganization expands the Senate to 96 members.
1930 — Following the "Persons Case" finding that women are eligible to sit in the Senate, Cairine MacKay Wilson of Ontario becomes the first woman senator
1949 — Newfoundland joins Confederation, Senate expands to 102 members.
1965 — Life tenure is abolished; senators serve to age 75.
1972 — Muriel McQueen Ferguson becomes the first woman to serve as Speaker.
1974 — Yukon and Northwest Territories each get a Senate seat, bringing total to 104.
1979 — Nunavut gets a seat, bringing total to 105.
1989 — Alberta elects Stan Waters as its senator-in-waiting. He is named to the Senate the next year by then-prime minister Brain Mulroney.
1990 — Mulroney invokes an obscure section of the Constitution to appoint eight new senators. This gives him the narrow edge he needs to get the GST legislation passed.
1991 — A Conservative government abortion bill dies in the Senate after a tie vote.
2013-14 — The Senate is racked by a series of expense scandals which lead to the suspension of three senators and prompt an investigation by the auditor general.
2014 — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau ousts senators from his caucus, saying they will have to sit as independents.
Quote: "It is not by any manner of means a trifling thing to say when I say that the value of a Senate is not only in what the Senate does, but in what the Senate prevents other people from doing." — Sir Richard Cartwright, speaking in the Senate, May 1906.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014