Questions and answers

Canadians have the opportunity to apply directly for a Senate appointment on a year-round basis through an open application process based on merit-based criteria and requirements under the Constitution. Applications are retained for a two-year period beginning at the time of application.

Applications are reviewed by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments (Advisory Board), an independent body established in 2016 to provide advice to the Prime Minister on candidates for Senate appointments. The Advisory Board, when convened by the Prime Minister, reviews applications in provinces and territories where there are planned or current vacancies.

The Government of Canada is working to establish Advisory Boards for all provinces and territories with current or anticipated Senate vacancies. Advisory Board members will be announced on our website in due course. Details regarding Advisory Board meetings are confidential and not disclosed.

If there is no application review start date, it means that the Advisory Board has not been established or is not yet ready to review applications for your province or territory. You can still submit your application. It will be retained for a two-year period starting on the day it was submitted. If a seat is or becomes vacant in your province or territory during the retention period, your application will be presented in due time to the Advisory Board for assessment. Information regarding upcoming Senate vacancies due to retirement can be found on the Senate of Canada’s website.

The Prime Minister considers the names recommended by the Advisory Board and subsequently provides his recommendation for appointment to the Senate to the Governor General. Persons recommended to the Prime Minister as well as persons designated by the Prime Minister for a possible recommendation to the Governor General are subject to due diligence, including security and constitutional requirements checks.

Details regarding Advisory Board meetings, their timelines and their recommendations to the Prime Minister are confidential and not disclosed. Only applicants that are selected for further consideration are contacted by the Advisory Board in due time. We recommend that you keep your profile and application documentation up-to-date over the two-year retention period.

Information regarding Senate vacancies can be found in the Senators section of the Senate of Canada’s website. If there is no vacancy in your province or territory of residency at this time, you may still submit your application for a Senate appointment. Applications are held for a period of two years beginning at the time of your application. If a seat in the Senate is or becomes vacant in your province or territory of residency during the retention period, your application will be provided in due time to the Advisory Board for their consideration.

Organizations and individuals are encouraged to nominate individuals whom they consider to be high quality candidates for appointment to the Senate and whom they feel meet the assessment criteria. To nominate an individual for a Senate appointment, go to the Nomination page.

As indicated in the assessment criteria, the person must be a resident or have real property qualification in the electoral division for which they are appointed. If your candidacy is successful, and you do not reside in a vacant electoral division, you will have the opportunity to purchase real property in the electoral division prior to the appointment. In other words, it is not necessary to be a resident of a particular electoral division, nor is it necessary to meet this criterion at the time of application.

You may apply for a Senate appointment on a year-round basis through the open application process. Applications are held for a period of two years beginning at the time of application. If a seat in the Senate is or becomes vacant in your province or territory of residency during the retention period, your application will be provided in due time to the Advisory Board for their consideration.

IMPORTANT – If there is an application review start date on the Advisory Board website, please apply before this date to ensure your application is considered by the Advisory Board for this review. Applications received after this date may be considered by the Advisory Board for this cycle, or retained for a future cycle, at the Advisory Board’s discretion.

As it takes time and effort to prepare an application, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as it’s ready, even if no application review start date has been set. Your application will be held for a period of two years beginning at the time of submission.

The status of an application will not be provided. Candidates selected for further consideration will be contacted regarding the next stages of the process. We recommend that you keep your profile and application documentation up-to-date over the two-year retention period.

Candidates selected for further consideration will be contacted regarding the next stages of the process. We recommend that you keep your profile and application documentation up-to-date over the two-year retention period.

Feedback will not be provided on individual applications. Applicants who were not selected for an appointment to the Senate will be considered for future opportunities within the two-year retention period. Applicants may also reapply for future vacancies. In the meantime, we encourage you to review the assessment criteria and ‎ensure that the information provided in your application demonstrates how you meet each of the criteria.

If you have already registered for an account in our new system, please ensure you are entering the same email address used during registration. Also, be sure to check your spam or junk folder for any account-related emails.

If you are still experiencing issues, select the Send Us a Message button at the bottom of the password reset page to contact a live support agent at any time.

1. Sign in to your account and select Profile from the top navigation bar.
2. Enter your current password, followed by the new password you would like to use.
3. Select Update Profile to save your changes.

If you submitted your application, check your spam or junk folder to ensure the confirmation email was not filtered there. You can also sign in to your profile and review your applicant dashboard (top of the page) to confirm that your application was submitted successfully. The application status will display Complete.

Applications are retained for two years from the application submission date. If you’re unsure of the application submission date and no longer have your confirmation email, please contact us.

IMPORTANT – Please note that updating your profile or your documents does not impact your 2-year expiry date.

To access documents you have submitted, sign in to your profile and select Application. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save and Next until you reach the Upload Your Documents page. The documents you uploaded will appear as hyperlinks beside the corresponding upload fields. To download a copy of a document, select its hyperlink and save it to your device.

Once the two-year retention period has ended, you must submit a new application if you wish to continue being considered. Please note that you will not be able to submit a new application until your existing application has expired. There is no need to withdraw your previous application before submitting a new one, provided the two-year retention period has passed.