Senators are appointed.
Senators are not intended to produce equal rep for each province. large provinces have more senators than small ones.
Senate is meant to give "sober second thought" to legislation passed by mob rule of mass-elected House of Commons - the common people, at least thsi was how the elite though of the HofC in old days (1800s)
so Senate is distinctly anti-democratic in form and goal, and not democratically-elected by any means.
province does not have control of appointments to Senate but they are province-based, the Senator for Alberta for example.
(even if the individual appointed does not live in the province or has only slight connection to the province he is to be Senator for --
"Opinion is divided about whether senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin were qualified to sit in the Senate as representatives of P.E.I. and Saskatchewan, respectively..."
from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senate-scandal-does-it-matter-where-a-senator-is-from-1.2418837
-- just as the member of single-member district may not actually live in the district - although usual setting up household in the riding once elected, even if most time is spent in the capital city anyway.
But Alberta has for many years "elected" its Senate nominees by holding balloting of the "Alberta Senate nominee,"
then it is up to federal government to use the selection to fill any place that comes up.
usually feds are slow to accomodate the Alberta nominees and under no written contract to do so.
NDP has historically stayed out of the Senate nominee races on concept that form follows function
as Senate nominee are always presented as Alberta versus fed gov't, the winner is always at least partly flavoured by Alberta separatism sentiment. (axe the tax, scrap the cap, stop the National Energy Plan., alberta firewall, etc.)
and Alberta NDP wanted no part of that.
=====================================Canadian
Comments