The following is a guest post by Vani Govindarajan, a third year law student who is volunteering with the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.

There has been quite a furor about the Senate this summer. We’ve heard about everything from expenses and audits, ethics and accountability, to possibilities for election, appointment, reform, and abolition.
But what is the Senate? What does it do? Why do we have one? A series of blog posts this summer will try to answer some of these key questions to help us understand the Senate and all the discussion about the bigger questions of whether we should to keep it as is, reform it, or even need it at all.
Let’s start with some basic information.
What is a “senate”?
The word senate comes from the Latin word ‘senatus’ and means council of old men. However, Canada’s Senate is now composed of both men and women, after the Privy Council in London declared that women were ‘persons’ (click here to read our post about the Persons Case.). And while many would agree that 35 years old is not ‘old’, a senator must be at least that age before he or she can be appointed to the Senate. In contrast, someone can be elected to the House of Commons at age 18.
As an aside, Canada’s Senate is sometimes called the “red chamber” because of the chamber’s decor. Red is the colour of royalty and the Senate chamber is where the King comes to visit Parliament.
What is the difference between a Senate and Upper Chamber?
Canada’s federal Parliament has a bicameral Legislature, meaning it has two chambers or houses. The Senate is the name given to the upper chamber. The lower chamber is the House of Commons. These two houses, together with the King, form the Parliament of Canada.
The Constitution Act, 1867 sets out that the Upper House is to be called the “Senate” and its members “Senators”. Canadian provinces and other countries have given other names to the upper house or chamber. For example, provincial governments before Confederation, including the Province of Canada, called their upper chambers “Legislative Councils”. In the United Kingdom, the upper chamber is called the House of Lords.
Why do we have a Senate in Canada?
The preamble of the Constitution Act, 1867, formerly the British North America Act, 1867, explains the objective of adopting a constitution “similar in principle” to that of the United Kingdom. Canada’s Parliament is modelled after the United Kingdom’s Parliament, which has two houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
While Parliament was to be similar in principle to the UK Parliament, there are some differences in how the Canadian Senate is modelled. The first is that representation in the Senate is based on regions. Another difference is that Senate positions are not hereditary appointments and so the number of Senators is fixed. As a young country without a land-owning aristocracy, there was no ability to attach a position in the Senate to title, and appointment or election became the only real options for selection to the Senate.
Purpose of the Senate
Even during negotiations at Quebec in 1864, the ‘Fathers of Confederation’ were far from being in agreement on representation or on the selection of Senators and that was partly because of different views of its potential role.  The Senate that was ultimately created may be said to have had two major functions.
The first was to review and revise legislation and be a check against the political majority in the House of Commons. It is this function that the first Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald was referring to when he said the Senate was to be the house of “sober second thought”.
A second major purpose of the Senate was to represent the regions in a new Confederation. Lower Canada (Quebec) and the Maritime colonies were concerned with protecting historical, linguistic and religious identities, as well as local economic interests. The House of Commons was to be governed by the principle of ‘representation by population’ (which had not been the case in the Province of Canada) and, fearing the dominance of Upper Canada (Ontario), smaller provinces demanded equality in the Senate.
Do any of the provincial legislatures have senates?
Not anymore. Many pre-Confederation colonies had elected upper chambers, known as Legislative Councils. Most were appointed although Prince Edward Island had an elected Legislative Council.  The Province of Canada appointed its members until 1856, after which new members were elected for life terms. One of the biggest reasons why provinces with an upper chamber have since abolished it is the expense of maintaining a second body. As well, there was often a challenge to find qualified people because the Governor-General would often choose senators from provincial upper chambers. Quebec was the last province to abolish its upper house in 1968.
Answers or More Questions?
This post may have left you with more questions: what rules are in place to achieve regional representation? Did the ‘Fathers of Confederation’ make similar arguments about whether the Senate should be appointed and elected body that we are still having today? The next post will look at how someone can become a Senator…and how they can be disqualified.
Further reading:

• About the Senate, according to the Senate: http://sen.parl.gc.ca/portal/about-senate-e.htm
• A Background on the Senate: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/07/09/f-senate-background.html