Did You Know?

Women and the vote

In Lower Canada, women could legally vote until 1849. Many of the women who voted were widows, as they were the most likely to have the property qualifications necessary for the franchise. Similarly, in Upper Canada women could, in theory, vote until 1849, but because of custom and social disapproval, they generally did not. New Brunswick's first electoral law, passed in 1791, did not exclude women, although they were disenfranchised in 1843. There are recorded incidents of women voting in Nova Scotia before they were prohibited from voting in 1851. Thus, by 1867, women of property in the three provinces joined by Confederation – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada, composed of Lower Canada and Upper Canada – had all lost the franchise. For more information on women and the vote, consult Elections Canada's magazine Electoral Insight (June 1999, November 1999 and January 2001 issues).

Election officials and the vote

To ensure impartiality and in recognition of that impartiality, the officials most responsible for election administration, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada and the Assistant Chief Electoral Officer (if any), are not permitted to vote in a federal election.

Digitized mapping

Elections Canada produces digitized, computer-generated electoral district and polling division maps. As well as being of a more manageable size, the new maps are easier to update and reproduce. Electoral district boundary maps are now also available in atlas form for each of the 10 provinces. (Since Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut each consist of a single electoral district, they have been combined into one atlas.) Also available are a set of larger wall maps of each province, and two differently sized maps of Canada, all showing electoral district boundaries.

Canadians only

Registered political parties, trusts established by political parties, the riding associations of parties, and candidates may receive contributions only from Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Corporations, unions, unincorporated associations, foreign political parties as well as foreign governments or their representatives may not contribute.

The largest and the smallest

Largest electoral district in Canada: Nunavut, with 2,093,190 km²

Smallest electoral district in Canada: Papineau, with 9 km²

One last enumeration

A final federal door-to-door enumeration was held in April 1997 in all provinces except Alberta and Prince Edward Island. Legislation creating the National Register of Electors permitted the use of final voters lists from the Alberta and Prince Edward Island provincial elections held in March 1997 and November 1996 respectively, in place of a door-to-door enumeration in those provinces. Since then, information from the National Register of Electors has served as the basis for all federal electoral lists. The Register is updated from existing federal, provincial and territorial data sources.

December 2014