It's extremely rare, but Carney isn't the first to shuffle an opposition MP to the Senate

It's extremely rare, but Carney isn't the first to shuffle an opposition MP to the Senate

Over 300 Canadians have served in both chambers, only a handful were appointed by a PM from a different party

Prime Minister Mark Carney shook up the party standings in the House of Commons again this week, this time by appointing Conservative MP Richard Martel to the Senate.

Carney built his majority government with the help of four former Conservatives who defected and joined his Liberal caucus. While Martel's appointment isn't technically a floor-crossing, it does leave the Conservatives with one fewer vote in the House and opens up a byelection that the Liberals could potentially win.

Martel is expected to sit as a non-affiliated senator for the time being, even though the Conservatives still have a Senate caucus. But Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doesn't appear to have any gripes with the move, at least publicly.

"Congratulations to Richard Martel on his appointment to the Senate. I hope he will continue the fight for affordability, growing paycheques, and safe streets in the Upper Chamber," the Conservative leader said in a social media post.

While it is an extremely rare move for a prime minister to appoint an opposition MP directly to the Senate, it has happened in the past.

Over 300 Canadians have served in both chambers on Parliament Hill since Confederation, an overwhelming majority of whom were appointed by a prime minister from the same political party.

There is a handful of cases where a prime minister has appointed a senator who had been an MP in a different party, though several years separated their exit from the lower chamber and their entry into the upper chamber.

Martel joins a unique club of senators who have been plucked directly from the House of Commons floor on the recommendation of a prime minister of a different political stripe.

The earliest example of a prime minister selecting an MP from the opposition benches to serve in the Red Chamber dates back to Parliament's early days.

Thomas Robert McInnes sat as an independent MP from 1878 to 1881 when he swapped his seat in the House for one in the Senate on the recommendation of then prime minister John A. Macdonald.

McInnes would later be appointed lieutenant governor of B.C. in 1897. Macdonald for his part did appoint a pair of Liberal MPs to the upper chamber during his tenure — though both had left the House years before their appointments.

After McInnes came two MPs from the First World War era who might have an asterisk next to their names when it comes to whether they were appointed from the "opposition" ranks.

The 1917 election, which was almost exclusively contested on the conscription issue, disrupted the traditional Conservative-Liberal dichotomy. More than a dozen pro-conscription Liberal MPs joined Conservative Robert Borden's Unionist government at that time — including John Gillanders Turriff.

Turriff had been a Liberal MP since 1904, serving in Wilfrid Laurier's government and then in opposition when Borden's Conservatives first formed government in 1911.

While most of the Liberals who joined the Unionist government returned to their original party following the war, Borden appointed Turriff to the Senate. The former MP sat as a Liberal senator until 1930.

Sanford Johnston Crowe, from the same era as Turrif, might have a larger asterisk beside his name than his fellow MP-turned-senator.

Crowe had no federal political experience prior to winning a seat in the 1917 election, and even though he ran with Borden, he styled himself a "Unionist Liberal." He would carry that branding into the Senate where he was appointed by Borden's successor Arthur Meighen.

The most recent example of an opposition MP being appointed directly to the Senate occurred in 1993.

Then prime minister Brian Mulroney tapped Liberal Marcel Prud'homme to join the Upper Chamber. Like Martel, Prud'homme changed his political stripes in the Senate to sit as an Independent.

But unlike Martel, Prud'homme's appointment didn't trigger a byelection because it happened just before the 1993 general election. The Liberals were able to retain Prud'homme's former seat in that vote.

Pierre Trudeau holds the distinction of being the only prime minister to appoint multiple sitting opposition MPs to the Senate, though two of the four did not trigger a byelection.

Progressive Conservative MP Martial Asselin accepted a Senate seat just prior to the 1972 general election, and fellow PC MP Robert Muir was appointed just prior to the 1979 national vote.

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Neither Aselin's nor Muir's seat was held by the Progressive Conservatives in the subsequent elections. The Social Credit Party won Asselin's former riding of Charlevoix in 1972 and the Liberals won Muir's former Nova Scotia seat in 1979.

Two other Trudeau opposition Senate appointments did trigger byelections: Progressive Conservative MPs Jack Marshall and Claude Wagner were both sent off to the Red Chamber in 1978.

Trudeau's Liberals capitalized on Wagner's move, winning his former Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., riding. But the NDP was able to scoop up Marshall's former seat in Newfoundland and Labrador.

All four of the Trudeau appointments sat as Progressive Conservatives in the Senate.

Martel's riding is just one of seven byelections expected to come this year. The former Conservative MP has held his riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord since 2018, but his victory in last year's election was a narrow one, just edging out the Bloc Québécois and Liberal candidates.

Carney has until early January to call a vote in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord.

Darren Major is a senior writer for CBC's parliamentary bureau in Ottawa. He previously worked as a digital reporter for CBC Ottawa and a producer for CBC's Power & Politics. He holds a master's degree in journalism and a bachelor's degree in public affairs and policy management, both from Carleton University. He also holds a master's degree in arts from Queen's University. He can be reached at darren.major@cbc.ca.