Canada’s electoral encyclopedia

How many people have been elected so far?
(And name them while you’re at it!)

by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)

Edith Blanche Rogers (1894–1985)
© Photo 1935 — Public domain

Have you ever wondered how many people have been elected to Parliament or the legislative assemblies since Confederation? Well, maybe you haven’t, but I have! And it’s 14,591 persons — 13,128 men, 1,457 women, and 6 persons identifying as non-binary. Among them, 4,687 are (or are believed to be) still alive: 3,448 men, 1,233 women, and all the non-binary individuals.

Although they are not legion, some people never sat in the legislature to which they were elected. A few examples:

These people are still part of this count.

The following interactive table shows how many people have been elected to each legislature.

  • The number in an F (Federal) or P (Provincial/Territorial) cell for each jurisdiction leads to the corresponding list of people.
  • However, only the F cells are active in the Total row.
  • The "Diff." rows show the adjustments to count the same person only once, and how many are (or are believed to be) still alive.

Number of persons elected
F: Federal    P: Provincial/Territorial    T: Total    number in italic: Alive
Obtain the list of the persons behind these numbers by clicking on one under the F or P column (except Total row).
Juri. Total Men (M) Women (F) Non binary (X)
F P T F P T F P T F P T
9 AB 260 988 1,248 241 859 1,100 19 128 147 0 1 1
8 BC 376 1,028 1,404 325 866 1,191 51 162 213 0 0 0
11 MB 230 893 1,123 212 813 1,025 18 79 97 0 1 1
3 NB 225 949 1,174 215 893 1,108 10 56 66 0 0 0
7 NL 66 429 495 58 390 448 8 39 47 0 0 0
2 NS 267 847 1,114 253 780 1,033 14 66 80 0 1 1
14 NT 14 178 192 10 154 164 4 24 28 0 0 0
13 NU 5 85 90 1 67 68 4 18 22 0 0 0
15 NW 19 82 101 19 82 101 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 ON 1,647 1,992 3,639 1,504 1,817 3,321 143 173 316 0 2 2
4 PE 78 512 590 75 475 550 3 37 40 0 0 0
5 QC 1,314 1,844 3,158 1,184 1,649 2,833 130 195 325 0 0 0
10 SK 226 798 1,024 215 725 940 11 73 84 0 0 0
12 YT 12 122 134 9 93 102 3 28 31 0 1 1
Total 4,739 10,747 15,486 13,984 9,663 13,984 418 1,078 1,496 0 6 6
Diff. -895
Alive
14,591
4,687
32.1%
Diff. -856
Alive
13,128
3,448
26.3%
Diff. -39
Alive
1,457
1,233
84.6%
Diff. 0
Alive
6
6
100.0%
This table counts the number of persons elected to a legislature. A person elected to more than one legislature is counted for each one, but the total is then ajusted.

The small number of elected women is glaring, but it is interesting to note that most of them (84.6%) are still alive compared to the average (32.1%). Even though Canadian women have had the right to vote for 85 years or more, they only started to be elected in more significant numbers to legislative assemblies in the 1980s, and parity with men is mostly still far from being achieved.



© 2005, 2025 :: PoliCan.ca (Maurice Y. Michaud)
Pub.: 12 Nov 2022 08:02
Rev.: 14 Sep 2025 17:03 (but data presented dynamically)