A Comprehensive Dataset of Four Provincial Legislative Assembly Members

Abstract

This research note reports on a new dataset about legislators in four Canadian provinces since the establishment of their colonial assemblies in the eighteenth century. Over 7,000 legislators from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia are included, with consolidated information drawn from multiple sources about parliamentarians’ years of birth and death, religion, electoral performance, kinship, and several other biographical indicators. We also illustrate the utility of such data with the help of a few descriptive examples drawn from the four provinces. We believe this consolidated dataset offers several opportunities for future research on representation, legislative activities and party politics.

Political Dynasties in Canada

“…The goal of this study is to measure the advantages of family ties in politics by leveraging a large and consolidated dataset of legislators from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick since the 18th century. Information for these legislators includes age, year of death, gender, political affiliation (if applicable), occupation, place of birth, religion and family relations (Rivard et al 2024). We employ Dal Bó et al 's (2009: 116) definition of dynasties, as 'those from a family that had previously placed a member' in the legislature.…”

“…Despite these issues, our biographical dataset remains the most comprehensive consolidation of available historical information to date. For a more detailed description of our data-collection process and its limitations, see Alex Rivard et al (2024).…”