Population per senator in Canada - Chart (2013)

Like most other upper houses worldwide, the Canadian formula does not use representation by population as a primary criterion for member selection, since this is already done for the House of Commons. Rather, the intent when the formula was struck was to achieve a balance of regional interests and to provide a house of "sober second thought" to check the power of the lower house when necessary. Therefore, the most populous province (Ontario) and two western provinces that were not populous at their accession to the federation and that are within a region are under-represented, while the Maritimes are the opposite. For example, British Columbia, with a population of about four million, sends six senators to Ottawa, whereas, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with populations of fewer than one million, are each entitled to 10 senators. Only Quebec has a share of senators approximate to its share of the total population. For comparison, Canada has roughly one senator for about 300,000 citizens, while the United States Senate has one elected senator for about three million citizens.

Reference 1: Population per Senator (April 2013), % senators, % population, seats, House of Commons and % seats, Commons.

Reference 2: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Nunavut and Total/Average, Canada.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_of_Canada