Overview of Parliament

Since Canada became a country, there have been 42 parliaments. One parliament ends when members of the House have lost confidence in the government or, on the advice of the Prime Minister. In both cases a general election is triggered.

Each parliament consists of one to seven sessions. Generally, a session ends after four years and a general election is held. Then, a new session begins.

Within each session, members of parliament meet a number of times in the House to discuss government bills, make statements on matters of concern and, for opposition members, ask the government questions for which the government provides answers (in theory). Each meeting of members is called a sitting and at every sitting, all discussions, statements and questions (i.e. daily proceedings) are recorded. This transcript is referred to as Hansard.

Parliamentary data uses all of the daily proceedings recorded in Hansard. This decision was made in order to capture issues driven not only by the government through government orders, but also by the opposition through member statements and question period.