Editing Senate of Canada (section)

====Parliamentary groups====
While for much of the Senate's history, most senators were affiliated with the same federal political parties that seek seats in elections to the House of Commons, this has changed in the 21st century and the large majority of current senators have no formal partisan affiliations. From 1867 to 2015, prime ministers normally chose members of their own parties to be senators, though they sometimes nominated non-affiliated senators or members of opposing parties. Since November 4, 2015, all newly appointed Senators have not been affiliated with a political party and there has been no government caucus in the Senate.{{efn|name=SenLiberals|The [[Senate Liberal Caucus]], which existed from 2014 until 2019, was not affiliated with the governing [[Liberal Party of Canada]]}} On December 6, 2016, for the first time in Canadian history the number of senators without a partisan affiliation exceeded that of the largest parliamentary group of senators with a partisan affiliation, and on October 17, 2017, the largest parliamentary group became one composed of senators unaffiliated with a political party. By the end of the [[43rd Canadian Parliament|43rd Parliament]], only 20 per cent of senators were affiliated with a political party, all members of the Conservative caucus.

Senators are organized into one of four recognized [[parliamentary group]]s (or caucuses), or are described as [[independent (politics)|non-affiliated]] if they are members of none. Three of the parliamentary groups have weak to nonexistent patterns of [[party discipline]] and in lieu of a [[Whip (politics)|whip]] designate an individual to serve as a liaison; they have accordingly been compared to [[technical group]]s or [[crossbenchers]] in other jurisdictions. By contrast, the Conservative group remains affiliated with the [[Conservative Party of Canada|federal party]] with its members attending caucus meetings with its members of the House of Commons; they follow the party whip as a condition of continued affiliation.

[[File:Senate of Canada - Seating Plan By Province.svg|thumb|Canadian Senate seat count in each province and territory, {{as of|2021|06|lc=on}}]]
{{Table alignment}}
{| class="wikitable col3right"
! colspan="2" | Caucus
! Senators<ref>{{Cite web |title=Senators |url=https://sencanada.ca/en/senators/ |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=Senate of Canada |language=en}}</ref>
|-
| {{Canadian party colour|CA|ISG|background}} | &nbsp;
| [[Independent Senators Group]]
| 45
|-
| {{Canadian party colour|CA|Canadian Senators Group|background}} | &nbsp;
| [[Canadian Senators Group]]
| 18
|-
| {{Canadian party colour|CA|Progressive Senate Group|background}} | &nbsp;
| [[Progressive Senate Group]]
| 18
|-
| {{Canadian party colour|CA|Conservative|background}} | &nbsp;
| [[Conservative Party of Canada#Senate Caucus|Conservative]]
| 11
|-
| {{Canadian party colour|CA|Independent|background}} | &nbsp;
| [[Independent (politician)|Non-affiliated]]{{efn|name=NA|The non-affiliated senators include the Speaker of the Senate and the three members of the Government Representative Office.<ref name="senatorslist">{{cite web |url=https://sencanada.ca/en/senators/ |title=Senators |date=April 11, 2016 |publisher=Senate of Canada |access-date=29 April 2025}}</ref><ref name=gro>{{cite web |url=https://senate-gro.ca/about/ |title=About the Government Representative Office (GRO) |publisher=Government Representative Office |access-date=28 July 2020 |quote=Although the three senators represent the Government to the Senate, they do not sit in a partisan caucus and do not lead a caucus.}}</ref>}}
| 12
|-
| {{Canadian party colour|CA|vacant|background}} | &nbsp;
| Vacant
| 1
|-
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;'''Total'''
| '''105'''
|}