The 38th Federal Election, 2004

Parliament and Elections

Strictly speaking, "Parliament" (when referring to Canada) is a body made up of three parts: the Sovereign, the Upper House (Senate) and the Lower House (House of Commons). In common usage, however, Parliament has come to mean the House of Commons. Following each federal election, a new House of Commons is elected, and, thus, a new Parliament is created. Therefore, the 38th Parliament will be formed following the 38th federal election.

Federal elections must be held no longer than five years following the immediately preceding election. The timing between elections depends mainly on whether or not one party has a majority:

• If one party wins more than half of the seats in an election (meaning it has a majority in the House of Commons), this party forms a government. The leader of this party becomes the prime minister. Normally, he or she will not call the next general election until four or five years after the preceding election took place.
• If no party wins a majority, a minority government is formed, consisting of one party governing with the support of other parties. Once the minority government is defeated on a confidence issue, the government falls, and it requests that the Governor General dissolve parliament so that a new election can take place. By custom, this request is always granted.

Changes since Election Day

Since election day, the following events have affected party standings in the House of Commons:

• On November 21, 2004, Carolyn Parrish, M.P. for the Ontario riding of Mississauga—Erindale, left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent.
• On December 16, 2004, the Liberal M.P. for Labrador, Lawrence D. O’Brien, died. A by-election was subsequently scheduled for May 24, 2005.
• On April 12, 2005, the M.P. for the Alberta riding of Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, the Hon. David Kilgour, left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent.
• On May 17, 2005, the M.P. for the Ontario riding of Newmarket—Aurora, Belinda Stronach, left the Conservative Party and joined the Liberal Party.
• On May 24, 2005, the Labrador by-election resulted in the Liberal party retaining this seat. The preliminary results are as follows:

Table 1: Labrador By-election Results

• On July 9, 2005, the Independent M.P. for the British Columbia riding of Surrey - North, Chuck Cadman, died.
• On June 6, 2005, the Liberal M.P. for the Ontario riding of London-Fanshawe, Pat O'Brien, left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent.
• On 18 October 2005, the M.P. for the Manitoba riding of Churchill, Bev Desjarlais, left the New Democratic Party caucus to sit as an independent.

For additional details on the relationship of Parliament and elections, and how to interpret this map, refer to the Data and Mapping Notes.

Related Web sites

• The Parliamentary Internet
  This site contains current and past data about membership in the House of Commons and the Senate of Canada.
• Elections Canada
  Elections Canada is the non-partisan agency responsible for the conduct of federal elections and referendums. This agency is also the official source for names of electoral districts, registered political parties and voting data for federal elections and by-elections.

• The 39th Federal Election, Provisional Results Map | Read about this map
• The 37th Federal Election, 2000 Map | Read about this map