List of women appointed to the Canadian Senate

Women have served in the Canadian Senate since Senator Cairine Wilson was first appointed to the Senate by the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1930. ^[1] Since then, women have represented every province and territory in the Senate.

Women won the right to be appointed to the Senate in 1929 due to the Famous Five Persons Case (Edwards v Canada (AG)).

Former women senators

The following women were appointed to the Senate of Canada but are no longer serving. This table matches the structure used in List of current senators of Canada.

Name		Senate party or affiliation	Province or Territory (Senate Division)	Date appointed	Date left office	Appointed on the advice of		Notes
	Cairine Wilson	Liberal	Ontario	1930-02-20	1962-03-30		King	First woman appointed senator
	Iva Campbell Fallis	Conservative	Ontario	1935-07-20	1956-03-07		Bennett	[2]
	Marianna Beauchamp Jodoin	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1953-05-19	1966-06-01		St. Laurent	[3]
	Muriel McQueen Ferguson	Liberal	New Brunswick	1953-05-19	1975-05-23		St. Laurent	[3]
	Nancy Hodges	Liberal	British Columbia	1953-11-05	1965-06-12		St. Laurent	[3]
	Florence Elsie Inman	Liberal	Prince Edward Island	1955-07-28	1986-05-31		St. Laurent	[3]
	Olive Lilian Irvine	Progressive Conservative	Manitoba	1960-01-14	1969-11-01		Diefenbaker	[3]
	Josie Alice Quart	Progressive Conservative	Quebec (division unknown)	1960-11-16	1980-04-17		Diefenbaker	[3]
	Mary Elizabeth Kinnear	Liberal	Ontario	1967-04-06	1973-04-03		Pearson	[3]
	Thérèse Casgrain	Non-affiliated	Quebec (division unknown)	1970-10-07	1971-07-10		Trudeau	[3]
	Nancy Bell	Liberal	British Columbia	1970-10-07	1989-11-29		Trudeau	[3]
	Renaude Lapointe	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1971-11-10	1987-01-03		Trudeau	[3]
	Margaret Norrie	Liberal	Nova Scotia	1972-04-27	1980-10-16		Trudeau	[3]
	Joan Neiman	Liberal	Ontario	1972-09-01	1995-09-09		Trudeau	[3]
	Florence Bird	Liberal	Ontario	1978-03-23	1983-01-15		Trudeau	[3]
	Margaret Jean Anderson	Liberal	New Brunswick	1978-03-23	1990-08-07		Trudeau	[3]
	Dalia Wood	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1979-03-26	1999-01-31		Trudeau	[3]
	Yvette Boucher Rousseau	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1979-03-27	1988-03-17		Trudeau	[3]
	Martha Bielish	Progressive Conservative	Alberta	1979-09-27	1990-09-26		Clark	[3]
	Anne Cools	Liberal	Ontario	1984-01-13	2018-08-12		Trudeau	First black member, and longest serving member of the Senate [3] [4]
	Lorna Marsden	Liberal	Ontario	1984-01-24	1992-08-31		Trudeau	[3]
	Joyce Fairbairn	Liberal	Alberta	1984-06-29	2013-01-18		Trudeau	First woman to serve as Leader of the Government of the Senate [3] [5]
	Brenda Robertson	Progressive Conservative	New Brunswick	1984-12-21	2004-05-23		Mulroney	[3]
	Eileen Rossiter	Progressive Conservative	Prince Edward Island	1986-11-17	2004-07-14		Mulroney	[3]
	Mira Spivak	Progressive Conservative	Manitoba	1986-11-17	2009-07-12		Mulroney	[3]
	Ethel Cochrane	Progressive Conservative	Newfoundland and Labrador	1986-11-17	2012-09-23		Mulroney	[3]
	Solange Chaput-Rolland	Progressive Conservative	Quebec (division unknown)	1988-09-26	1994-05-14		Mulroney	[3]
	Nancy Teed	Progressive Conservative	New Brunswick	1990-08-30	1993-01-29		Mulroney	[3]
	Pat Carney	Progressive Conservative	British Columbia	1990-08-30	2008-01-31		Mulroney	[3]
	Mabel DeWare	Progressive Conservative	New Brunswick	1990-09-23	2001-08-09		Mulroney	[3]
	Janis Johnson	Progressive Conservative	Manitoba	1990-09-27	2016-09-27		Mulroney	[3]
	Thérèse Lavoie-Roux	Progressive Conservative	Quebec (division unknown)	1990-09-27	2001-03-12		Mulroney	[3]
	Raynell Andreychuk	Progressive Conservative	Saskatchewan	1993-03-11	2019-08-14		Mulroney	—
	Erminie Cohen	Progressive Conservative	New Brunswick	1993-06-04	2001-07-23		Mulroney	[6]
	Marjory LeBreton	Progressive Conservative	Ontario	1993-06-18	2015-07-04		Mulroney	[6]
	Landon Pearson	Liberal	Ontario	1994-09-15	2005-11-16		Chrétien	—
	Lise Bacon	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1994-09-15	2009-08-25		Chrétien	[7]
	Sharon Carstairs	Liberal	Manitoba	1994-09-15	2011-10-17		Chrétien	[7]
	Rose-Marie Losier-Cool	Liberal	New Brunswick	1995-03-21	2012-06-18		Chrétien	[7]
	Céline Hervieux-Payette	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1995-03-21	2016-04-22		Chrétien	[7]
	Doris Margaret Anderson	Liberal	Prince Edward Island	1995-09-21	1997-07-05		Chrétien	[7]
	Lorna Milne	Liberal	Ontario	1995-09-21	2009-12-13		Chrétien	[7]
	Marie Charette-Poulin	Liberal	Ontario	1995-09-21	2015-04-17		Chrétien	[7]
	Shirley Maheu	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1996-02-01	2006-02-01		Chrétien	[7]
	Jean Forest	Liberal	Alberta	1996-05-16	1998-08-28		Chrétien	[7]
	Eugene Whelan	Liberal	Ontario	1996-08-09	1999-07-11		Chrétien	[7]
	Lucie Pépin	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1997-04-08	2011-09-07		Chrétien	[7]
	Peggy Butts	Liberal	Nova Scotia	1997-09-22	1999-08-15		Chrétien	[8]
	Marisa Ferretti Barth	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1997-09-22	2006-04-28		Chrétien	[8]
	Catherine Callbeck	Liberal	Prince Edward Island	1997-09-22	2014-07-25		Chrétien	[8]
	Joan Cook	Liberal	Newfoundland and Labrador	1998-03-06	2009-10-06		Chrétien	[8]
	Marian Maloney	Liberal	Ontario	1998-06-11	1999-08-16		Chrétien	[8]
	Lois Wilson	Non-affiliated	Ontario	1998-06-11	2002-04-08		Chrétien	[8]
	Vivienne Poy	Liberal	Ontario	1998-09-17	2012-09-17		Chrétien	First Senator of Asian ancestry [8] [9]
	Joan Fraser	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1998-09-17	2018-02-02		Chrétien	[8]
	Sheila Finestone	Liberal	Quebec (division unknown)	1999-08-11	2002-01-28		Chrétien	[8]
	Thelma Chalifoux	Liberal	Alberta	1999-08-15	2004-02-08		Chrétien	[8]
	Isobel Finnerty	Liberal	Ontario	1999-09-02	2005-07-15		Chrétien	[8]
	Ione Christensen	Liberal	Yukon	1999-09-02	2006-12-31		Chrétien	[8]
	Betty Kennedy	Liberal	Ontario	2000-06-20	2001-01-04		Chrétien	[8]
	Libbe Hubley	Liberal	Prince Edward Island	2001-03-08	2017-09-08		Chrétien	[10]
	Mobina Jaffer	ISG	British Columbia	2001-06-13	2024-08-20		Chrétien	First South Asian woman appointed to the Senate [11] [12]
	Viola Léger	Liberal	New Brunswick	2001-06-13	2005-06-29		Chrétien	[10]
	Maria Chaput	Liberal	Manitoba	2002-12-12	2016-03-01		Chrétien	[10]
	Pana Merchant	Liberal	Saskatchewan	2002-12-12	2017-03-31		Chrétien	[10]
	Madeleine Plamondon	Non-affiliated	Quebec (division unknown)	2003-09-09	2006-09-21		Chrétien	[10]
	Marilyn Trenholme Counsell	Liberal	New Brunswick	2003-09-09	2008-10-22		Chrétien	[10]
	Nancy Ruth	Progressive Conservative	Ontario	2005-03-24	2017-01-06		Martin	[3]
	Claudette Tardif	Liberal	Alberta	2005-03-24	2018-02-02		Martin	[3]
	Lillian Dyck	Liberal	Saskatchewan	2005-03-24	2020-08-24		Martin	[3]
	Elaine McCoy	Progressive Conservative	Alberta	2005-03-24	2020-12-29		Martin	[3]
	Andrée Champagne	Conservative	Quebec (division unknown)	2005-08-02	2014-07-17		Martin	[3]
	Sandra Lovelace Nicholas	PSG	New Brunswick	2005-09-21	2023-01-31		Martin	[10]
	Nancy Greene Raine	Conservative	British Columbia	2009-01-02	2018-05-11		Harper	[3]
	Nicole Eaton	Conservative	Ontario	2009-01-02	2020-01-21		Harper	[3]
	Suzanne Duplessis	Conservative	Quebec (division unknown)	2009-01-14	2015-06-30		Harper	[3]
	Linda Frum	Conservative	Ontario	2009-08-27	2021-08-27		Harper	[3]
	Carolyn Stewart-Olsen	Conservative	New Brunswick	2009-08-27	2021-07-27		Harper	[3]
	JoAnne Buth	Conservative	Manitoba	2012-01-06	2014-08-10		Harper	—
	Asha Seth	Conservative	Ontario	2012-01-06	2014-12-15		Harper	—
	Betty Unger	Conservative	Alberta	2012-01-06	2018-08-21		Harper	—
	Diane Bellemare	PSG	Quebec (division unknown)	2012-09-06	2024-10-13		Harper	[11]
	Lynn Beyak	Conservative	Ontario	2013-01-25	2021-01-25		Harper	—
	Ratna Omidvar	ISG	Ontario	2016-04-01	2024-11-05		Trudeau, J.	[11]
	Nancy Hartling	ISG	New Brunswick	2016-11-10	2025-02-01		Trudeau, J.	[11]
	Diane Griffin	CSG	Prince Edward Island	2016-11-10	2022-03-18		Trudeau, J.	[3]
	Patricia Bovey	PSG	Manitoba	2016-11-10	2023-05-15		Trudeau, J.	[3]
	Josée Forest-Niesing	ISG	Ontario	2018-10-11	2021-11-20		Trudeau, J.	[3]

Current women senators

The following women are currently serving in the Senate of Canada. This table matches the structure used in List of current senators of Canada.

Current composition of the Senate by affiliation and province ^[14]

Name [13]		Senate party or affiliation	Province or Territory (Senate Division)	Date appointed	Appointed on the advice of		Mandatory retirement date	Titles
	Pierrette Ringuette	ISG	New Brunswick	2002-12-12		Chrétien	2030-12-31	Deputy Speaker
	Yonah Martin	Conservative	British Columbia	2009-01-02		Harper	2040-04-11	Deputy Opposition Leader
	Pamela Wallin	CSG	Saskatchewan	2009-01-02		Harper	2028-04-10
	Judith Seidman	Conservative	Québec (De la Durantaye)	2009-08-27		Harper	2025-09-01
	Rose-May Poirier	Conservative	New Brunswick	2010-02-28		Harper	2029-03-02	Speaker pro tempore
	Salma Ataullahjan	Conservative	Ontario	2010-07-09		Harper	2027-04-29
	Josée Verner	CSG	Québec (Montarville)	2011-06-13		Harper	2034-12-30
	Denise Batters	Conservative	Saskatchewan	2013-01-25		Harper	2045-06-18
	Raymonde Gagné	Non-affiliated	Manitoba	2016-04-01		Trudeau, J.	2031-01-07	Speaker of the Senate
	Chantal Petitclerc	ISG	Québec (Grandville)	2016-04-01		Trudeau, J.	2044-12-15	Chair of ISG Deliberations
	Wanda Thomas Bernard	PSG	Nova Scotia	2016-11-10		Trudeau, J.	2028-08-01
	Gwen Boniface	ISG	Ontario	2016-11-10		Trudeau, J.	2030-08-05
	Marilou McPhedran	Non-affiliated	Manitoba	2016-11-10		Trudeau, J.	2026-07-22
	Lucie Moncion	ISG	Ontario	2016-11-10		Trudeau, J.	2033-10-25
	Kim Pate	ISG	Ontario	2016-11-10		Trudeau, J.	2034-11-10
	Marie-Françoise Mégie	ISG	Québec (Rougemont)	2016-11-25		Trudeau, J.	2025-09-21
	Raymonde Saint-Germain	ISG	Québec (De la Vallière)	2016-11-25		Trudeau, J.	2026-10-07	Facilitator of the ISG
	Rosa Galvez	ISG	Québec (Bedford)	2016-12-06		Trudeau, J.	2036-06-21
	Mary Coyle	ISG	Nova Scotia	2017-12-04		Trudeau, J.	2029-11-05
	Mary Jane McCallum	Non-affiliated	Manitoba	2017-12-04		Trudeau, J.	2027-05-01
	Marty Deacon	ISG	Ontario	2018-02-15		Trudeau, J.	2033-04-23
	Yvonne Boyer	ISG	Ontario	2018-03-15		Trudeau, J.	2028-10-25
	Donna Dasko	ISG	Ontario	2018-06-06		Trudeau, J.	2026-08-19
	Julie Miville-Dechêne	ISG	Québec (Inkerman)	2018-06-20		Trudeau, J.	2034-07-10
	Bev Busson	ISG	British Columbia	2018-09-24		Trudeau, J.	2026-08-23
	Patti LaBoucane-Benson	Non-affiliated	Alberta	2018-10-03		Trudeau, J.	2044-02-20	Deputy Gov. Representative
	Paula Simons	ISG	Alberta	2018-10-03		Trudeau, J.	2039-09-07
	Pat Duncan	ISG	Yukon	2018-12-12		Trudeau, J.	2035-04-08
	Rosemary Moodie	ISG	Ontario	2018-12-12		Trudeau, J.	2031-11-24
	Bernadette Clement	ISG	Ontario	2021-06-22		Trudeau, J.	2040-05-17	Deputy Facilitator of the ISG
	Michèle Audette	PSG	Québec (De Salaberry)	2021-07-29		Trudeau, J.	2046-07-20	Liaison (whip) of the PSG
	Amina Gerba	PSG	Québec (Rigaud)	2021-07-29		Trudeau, J.	2036-03-14	PSG Caucus Chair and Deputy Liaison (whip)
	Karen Sorensen	ISG	Alberta	2021-07-29		Trudeau, J.	2034-05-20
	Flordeliz (Gigi) Osler	CSG	Manitoba	2022-09-26		Trudeau, J.	2043-09-09
	Sharon Burey	CSG	Ontario	2022-11-21		Trudeau, J.	2032-12-04
	Rebecca Patterson	CSG	Ontario	2022-11-21		Trudeau, J.	2040-06-15	Deputy Leader of the CSG
	Jane MacAdam	ISG	Prince Edward Island	2023-05-03		Trudeau, J.	2032-03-01
	Iris Petten	Non-affiliated	Newfoundland and Labrador	2023-05-03		Trudeau, J.	2034-02-05
	Judy White	PSG	Newfoundland and Labrador	2023-07-06		Trudeau, J.	2039-01-11
	Joan Kingston	ISG	New Brunswick	2023-10-31		Trudeau, J.	2030-01-08
	Krista Ross	CSG	New Brunswick	2023-10-31		Trudeau, J.	2042-09-30
	Marnie McBean	ISG	Ontario	2023-12-20		Trudeau, J.	2043-01-28
	Paulette Senior	ISG	Ontario	2023-12-20		Trudeau, J.	2036-12-04
	Mary Robinson	CSG	Prince Edward Island	2024-01-22		Trudeau, J.	2045-08-03
	Manuelle Oudar	ISG	Québec (La Salle)	2024-02-13		Trudeau, J.	2038-07-05
	Tracy Muggli	PSG	Saskatchewan	2024-08-16		Trudeau, J.	2040-09-18
	Suze Youance	ISG	Québec (Lauzon)	2024-09-25		Trudeau, J.	2045-08-11
	Nancy Karetak-Lindell	Non-affiliated	Nunavut	2024-12-19		Trudeau, J.	2032-12-10
	Martine Hébert	Non-affiliated	Québec (Victoria)	2025-02-07		Trudeau, J.	2040-10-07
	Danièle Henkel	Non-affiliated	Québec (Alma)	2025-02-14		Trudeau, J.	2031-01-16
	Dawn Arnold	Non-affiliated	New Brunswick	2025-03-07		Trudeau, J.	2041-04-23
	Katherine Hay	Non-affiliated	Ontario	2025-03-07		Trudeau, J.	2036-01-16
	Farah Mohamed	Non-affiliated	Ontario	2025-03-07		Trudeau, J.	2045-07-05
	Sandra Pupatello	Non-affiliated	Ontario	2025-03-07		Trudeau, J.	2037-10-06

See also

List of women elected to Canadian Parliament

References

1. "Canada's First Woman Senator". The Historical Society of Ottawa. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
2. "Profile". Library of Parliament. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
3. "Parliamentarians". Library of Parliament. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
4. "Hon. Anne Cools". TorontoDV. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
5. "Debates - Issue 125 - December 4, 2012". Senate of Canada. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
6. "Senators". October 17, 2012. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
7. "Senators". Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
8. "Senators". Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
9. "Double Vision". University of Toronto Magazine. March 14, 2004. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
10. "Party Standings in the Senate". Archived from the original on October 7, 2015.
11. "Senators". Senate of Canada. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
12. "Mobina Jaffer". Canadian Immigrant. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
13. Names link to Wikipedia articles.
14. This table reflects the group affiliation and provincial representation of the 105 senators currently serving. It does not include retired or former senators.