Glossary

• Parliament and voting
• Bills and committees
• Elections and ridings
• Money in politics
• Census figures

Member of Parliamentalso called MP

The person elected to represent one area of the country in the House of Commons, the elected half of Canada's federal Parliament.

Recorded divisionalso called division, recorded vote

A vote in the House of Commons where each member's individual choice is written down and published. Most decisions in the House are made by voice, with no record of who wanted what; a recorded division is the kind we can actually count.On this site · Every voting figure here counts recorded divisions only, because they are the only votes with a public per-member record.

Ballot

How one member voted in one recorded division: yes, no, paired, or absent from the record.

Yea and nay

The formal words for yes and no in a parliamentary vote. Yea means in favour, nay means against.

Paired vote

An arrangement where two members on opposite sides both agree to miss a vote, so their absences cancel out and neither side gains. A paired member is absent on purpose, not by neglect.

Caucus

All the members of Parliament who belong to the same party, considered as a group.

Party discipline

How consistently a member votes the same way as the rest of their own party. Canadian parties expect near-unanimity, so almost every member votes with their party almost all of the time.On this site · Our discipline figure is a count, not a judgement: it says how often a member's vote matched most of their party, and nothing about why.

Independent member

A member of Parliament who belongs to no party, either because they were elected that way or because they left or were removed from one.

Parliament and session

A Parliament is the whole stretch between two general elections. Each Parliament is divided into sessions, which are working periods with their own agenda. Both are numbered, so "45-1" means the first session of the 45th Parliament.

Sitting

A day the House of Commons is actually meeting. Members hold seats all year, but the House sits only on scheduled days.

Prorogationalso called prorogued

Ending a session of Parliament without calling an election. The House stops meeting, committees stop work, and bills that have not passed die and must start over if anyone reintroduces them in the next session.

Tenure

The period a member has held their seat, from the day they were first elected.

Bill

A proposed law, while it is still going through Parliament. A bill is not law until it finishes every stage and receives royal assent.

Government bill

A bill introduced by a minister on behalf of the government. These carry the government's weight behind them and are the ones most likely to become law. Their numbers start with C-1 through C-200 in the House.

Private member's bill

A bill introduced by an individual member of Parliament rather than by the government — including members of the governing party who are not ministers. Most never become law, because they get far less debating time.

First, second and third reading

The three set stages a bill passes through in each chamber. First reading is its formal introduction, second reading is a vote on the idea behind it, and third reading is the final vote on the finished text.

Royal assent

The final approval that turns a bill into law, given in the monarch's name by the Governor General. It comes after both the House of Commons and the Senate have passed the identical text, and it is never refused in practice.

Standing committee

A small permanent group of members that examines one subject area — finance, health, justice — in detail. Committees question witnesses, study bills line by line, and suggest changes.

Senate

The appointed second chamber of Parliament. A bill must pass the Senate as well as the House of Commons before it can become law.

Ridingalso called federal electoral district, FED

One of the areas the country is divided into, each electing a single member of Parliament. "Federal electoral district" is the official name for the same thing.On this site · Each riding also has a five-digit number used in official records — the number after "FED" on a riding page. It is an identifier only; it says nothing about size or importance.

2023 Representation Orderalso called the 2023 boundaries

The current map of Canada's ridings, in force since 2023 and used for the first time in the 2025 general election. Boundaries are redrawn roughly every ten years to follow population changes; this redraw took the country from 338 ridings to 343.

Transposed results

Older election results recalculated to fit today's riding boundaries. When boundaries are redrawn, past and present results cover different areas and cannot be compared directly. Elections Canada works out how the old votes would have been distributed under the new map, which makes a like-for-like comparison possible.On this site · Wherever we compare a result from before 2025 with one after it, we use these recalculated figures and label them as transposed. They are an estimate of the past on today's map, not the result that was declared at the time.

By-election

An election held in a single riding between general elections, usually because the sitting member resigned or died.

Marginalso called competitiveness

How far ahead the winner finished, measured against whoever came second. A small margin means the seat was closely contested.

Valid and rejected ballots

Valid ballots are the ones that could be counted for a candidate. Rejected ballots were cast but could not be counted, usually because they were left blank or marked unclearly. Vote shares are calculated out of the valid ones.

Turnout

The share of people registered to vote in a riding who actually cast a ballot.

Riding associationalso called electoral district association, EDA

A party's local organisation in one riding. It exists between elections, can raise and hold money year-round, and files its own financial return.

Financial return

The report a candidate, riding association or party must file with Elections Canada listing the money it raised and spent. These filings are what every contribution figure on this site comes from.

Itemised contribution

A donation large enough that the donor has to be named. If someone gives more than $200 to the same recipient in a year, their name and the amount appear in the public filing. Smaller donations are added together and reported as a single lump sum, with no names.On this site · This is why donor lists here only show larger donors: the smaller ones are genuinely not named in the source.

Small-donor share

The portion of the money raised that came in donations too small to require naming the donor — that is, $200 or less from any one person in a year.

Leadership and nomination contestants

People competing inside a party rather than in a general election: a leadership contestant wants to lead the party, and a nomination contestant wants to be the party's candidate in one riding. Both raise money under separate rules.

Third-party election advertising

Election advertising bought by someone other than a party or candidate — a union, a business group, or a campaign organisation. It is regulated and reported separately, and it is not part of the donation figures on this site.

Lobbying and designated public office holders

Lobbying is paid communication with government to try to influence a decision. A "designated public office holder" is a senior official — a minister, a ministerial staffer, a deputy minister — whose meetings with lobbyists must be reported monthly.On this site · Canadash does not currently carry lobbying data.

Proactive disclosure

Spending reports the House of Commons publishes on its own schedule, without anyone having to ask. Members' office, travel and hospitality spending comes from these reports.

Participation rate (census)

The share of local residents aged 15 and over who are working or looking for work. This is a labour-force statistic about the population of a riding.On this site · It has nothing to do with our voting participation figure for members of Parliament. Same word, completely different thing.

LIM-AT and LICO-AT

Two official ways of counting how many people have low incomes, both measured after tax. LIM compares a household to the national middle; LICO asks whether a household has to spend an unusually large share of its income on basics. The two give different numbers for the same place, which is why both are shown.

Core housing need

A household counts as being in core housing need when its home is too expensive, too crowded or in poor repair, and it could not afford suitable housing nearby instead.

Random rounding

Statistics Canada deliberately nudges published census counts up or down by a small amount so that no individual can be identified from them. It means small figures are approximate and parts may not add up exactly to their total.

If a figure on this site does not make sense, the about and methodology page explains where every number comes from, how the ones we work out ourselves are calculated, and what each one cannot tell you. If you think something is simply wrong, tell us.