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Plain-language guides to how Canadian government actually works — no jargon, no partisanship, written to make the data on this site make sense.

Your MP and you

The job description nobody hands out: House duties, committee work, riding work.

Base salary, top-ups for cabinet and leadership roles, pension, and what expense budgets are not.

Email, phone, office visits — and the letter trick that needs no postage.

You vote for one name in one riding. Everything else follows from that.

Registration, ID, advance polls — the full walkthrough.

Who lobbies, what the registry discloses, and why it is legal.

Different registries, different rules, one system of influence.

The Commons, the Senate, and the Crown — the machine in one read.

First reading to royal assent, and where bills go to die.

The long-shot bills backbench MPs get to introduce.

The daily 45 minutes everyone clips for social media.

Where the real scrutiny happens — and where lobbyists testify.

The unelected chamber that can still stop a bill.

Why losing the election still comes with a job.

The MPs who run departments — and attract the most lobbying.

Powers, limits, and who actually picks the PM.

Ridings, campaigns, and how a government forms.

343 electoral districts, how boundaries are drawn, and what yours decides.

Why 172 is the number that decides everything.

The voting system, its critics, and the alternatives.

From the writ drop to election night.

Federal, provincial, municipal — who is responsible for what.