DossierCanada — who sits and votes in Canada's Parliament
Challenged bills
✋ Challenge a billFederal MPs
Who represents you, how they vote, how often they sit.
The federal Cabinet
Who decides what, since when, and how they vote.
Up to date. These ministers come directly from the official Cabinet page on pm.gc.ca, scraped live — not a hand-maintained list.
Federal bills
Every bill summarized in plain language. Not clear enough? Ask for an explanation.
Votes in the Commons
Every recorded vote — who voted what, and by what margin.
On the “who voted what” detail — the House of Commons publishes each member's name for every recorded (nominal) vote (Yea / Nay / paired). The by-member breakdown above (the "+" button on each row) comes directly from that official source (ourcommons.ca), not an estimate. The party shown next to each name is taken from the current House roster; people who have since left the House appear separately under "Former members".
How to read a vote
Recorded vote
Members vote one by one and each choice is entered in the public record. That is what lets us say exactly who voted what — no interpretation.
Passed is not law
A passed vote clears ONE stage. A bill must pass both chambers and then receive royal assent before it becomes law.
Paired is not absent
In the Commons, two members from opposing sides can agree not to vote: their voices cancel out. It is neither an absence nor an abstention.
DossierCanada updates
What changed on the site, newest first
Hi! My name is
Martin Archambault
I'm 45, and dossiercanada.ca is your first step into democracy!
If we want people to understand politics, it has to be brought down to their level.
When I first tried to take an interest in it, on top of not knowing the jargon, bills came as two lines… and fifty PDFs. Most people would simply walk away.
So I had an idea: use artificial intelligence first to read through all of it, then to put it in plain words. That's how DossierCanada was born.
Alongside the AI recap, I've given people a lexicon that explains the basics of political jargon. Plain-language law exists — think of this as its equivalent for politics!
September 2026
- Whole site
English pages now have English addresses
The English version lived at French addresses: /en/projets-de-loi, /en/deputes, /en/lexique. They become /en/bills, /en/mps, /en/glossary, /en/ministers and /en/updates. The old ones redirect to the new, so a link already shared keeps working.
- Whole site
We ask before setting a cookie
The site now counts its visits with Google Analytics, which sets cookies. Nothing loads before you answer: a bar at the bottom of the page asks, declining is as easy as accepting, and declining also clears cookies already set. The “Cookies” link in the footer lets you change your mind.
- Whole site
Each tab loads its own data
Until now, a visit to the glossary downloaded all 187 bills, 337 MPs and 174 votes — and displayed none of them. Data is now split by tab and arrives only when that tab opens: the glossary asks for 34 KB instead of 518, the home page 238 KB. The rest follows in an instant when you switch tabs.
- Whole site
Repeated labels, written once
“Private Member’s Bill”, party names, provinces: the same labels, in French and English, were copied into each of the 187 bill records and 337 MP records. They are now written once, and each record points to them. Another 100 KB off every visit.
- Whole site
Another 145 KB lighter
Official links (LEGISinfo, House of Commons) follow from the bill number and the session, so copying them cost 76 KB per visit. Add the per-bill division list no page displayed, and stage details already readable from the stage name. Every link is checked at build time: if it doesn’t derive exactly, the published address is kept.
- Whole site
Name lists now load on click
Who voted what on each of the 210 votes meant 1 MB downloaded on every page, even the glossary. Those lists now live in one file per vote, fetched when you open the card. The per-party counts still appear right away.
- Whole site
Pages ten times lighter
The site’s style and code were copied into each of the fourteen pages — 370 KB to download on every visit. They now live in two shared files the browser keeps. A page weighs 30 to 55 KB, and the data no longer holds up the display.
- Whole site
Why this site exists
The “and me” page now tells where DossierCanada comes from: a 45-year-old citizen who wanted to follow politics and ran into two lines of description and fifty PDFs.
- Whole site
Ontario lights up in the province row
The ON dot in the header now leads to DossierOntario, the sister site tracking Ontario’s Legislative Assembly. It carries the red of Ontario’s flag and flips like Quebec’s.
- Bills
Bill summaries are easier to read
On a wide screen, a summary line ran to 110 characters; past about 75, the eye struggles to find the start of the next line. The text is now larger (16px), more airy, and the reading width is capped at about 70 characters.
- Bills
Omnibus bills summarized part by part
An omnibus bill changes several different acts, one per part, and its title names only some of them. Thirteen bills this session are omnibus, from C-5 (2 parts) to C-2 (16 parts). They now carry an “Omnibus” button in the list, which filters to omnibus bills (an “Omnibus” filter also sits in the toolbar), a notice on the card, and their summary follows each part instead of stopping at the first ones. C-39 goes from 6 bullets to an overview plus three detailed parts.
- Bills
Plain-language summaries no longer go missing
When the plain-language summary failed on a long bill, the card showed only the raw official summary. A second attempt is now made automatically. C-39 (Building Canada Strong Act) now has its summary.
- Bills
Two-column bill cards
An open bill shows the plain-language summary on the left, in shorter lines, and on the right the latest activity, a button to the full text on LEGISinfo and sharing. The sponsor, chamber and bill type appear at the top of the card. On a phone, everything stays in one column.
- Bills
The bill list now loads in batches
The bills page first shows the 10 most recently active, then 20 more with each click on “See 20 more”. Search and filters start again at 10 results; a shared link to a bill still opens it, even further down the list.
- Whole site
“and me” becomes the site updates page
The “and me” link at the bottom of every page now leads here: the person behind the site, then what changes on it, newest first. The comic strip gives way to its photo panel alone, readable on a phone.
- Whole site
Pages search engines can understand
Every page has its own title, description and a single main heading that states its subject. The menu, the logo and the FR/EN switch are real links, and a breadcrumb (DossierCanada › Votes) shows where you are. The top of each page (count, filters, first cards) can be read even without JavaScript, and English pages are in English from the first load.
- Whole site
Pages about six times lighter
The site’s data (bills, votes, MPs) is no longer copied into every page: a single file, which your browser keeps from one page to the next. Each page goes from about 2.1 MB to 0.35 MB.
- Whole site
The site loads even when accounts are down
If the sign-in service doesn’t respond, the site still loads and works; only accounts have to wait. Before, the page could stay blank.
- Whole site
Official sources at the bottom of every page
The footer now links straight to LEGISinfo, the House of Commons, the Senate and the Commissioner of Lobbying, where the data comes from.
- Whole site
English gets its own addresses
Every page exists in English at its own address (/en, /en/votes, /en/bills…). You can share it as is, and the FR/EN switch changes the address too.
Parliament glossary
Parliamentary jargon, translated into everyday language.
Account and follows