In Canada, member of Parliament (MP; ) is a term typically used to describe an elected politician in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. The term can also less be used to refer to an appointed member of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
.
Terminology
The term's primary usage is in reference to the elected members of the House of Commons, as the unelected members of the Senate are titled ''Senator'' (), whereas no such alternate title exists for members of the House of Commons. A less ambiguous term for members of both chambers is Parliamentarian.
There are 338 elected MPs, who each represent an individual electoral district, known as a
riding. MPs are elected using the
first-past-the-post system
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
in a
general election or byelection, usually held every four years or less. The 105 members of the Senate are appointed by the Crown on the advice of the
prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
.
Representation
As of 2021, the Canadian House of Commons has 338 members, each of whom represents a single riding. Seats are distributed among the
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
in proportion to population, as determined by each decennial census, subject to the following exceptions made by the
Constitution of Canada
The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du Canada) is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents a ...
. Firstly, the "Senate floor" guarantees that each province will have at least as many elected MPs as
senators.
Secondly, the "grandfather clause" guarantees each province has at least as many seats now as it had allocated in the 1985 ''
Representation Act''.
Oath and affirmation
The oath for members of Parliament has stood the same since
confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
; according to Section IX.128 of the ''
Constitution Act, 1867
The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' (french: Loi constitutionnelle de 1867),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 186 ...
'': "Every member of the Senate and the House of Commons of Canada shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Governor General or some Person authorized by him, and every Member of a Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly of any Province shall before the Lieutenant Governor of the Province or some Person authorized by him, the Oath of Allegiance contained in the Fifth Schedule to the Act."
The oath set out in said schedule is: ''I,
ame #REDIRECT AME #REDIRECT AME
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{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
do swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria'', with the further instruction that "the name of the King or Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the Time being is to be substituted from Time to Time, with Proper Terms of Reference thereto." The oath reads as follows:Or in French:
For those parliamentarians whose religion prohibits the swearing of oaths, there exists a compromise affirmation, first instituted in 1905:
.
.
In 2021, the annual salary of each MP is $189,500. Members may receive additional sums by virtue of other positions or functions they hold, such as that of
.