{"id":201490,"date":"2019-11-05T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T16:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irpp-policy-options.local\/issues\/house-of-commons-becoming-more-reflective-of-diverse-population\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T04:47:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:47:58","slug":"house-of-commons-becoming-more-reflective-of-diverse-population","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/potestlaunch.irpp.org\/fr\/2019\/11\/house-of-commons-becoming-more-reflective-of-diverse-population\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Commons becoming more reflective of diverse population"},"content":{"rendered":"

How well does Canada integrate immigrants and visible minorities into political life? While the barriers to entering political life are significant, as the <\/span>Samara Centre for Democracy study<\/span> on nomination processes has shown, the recent election is cause for hope. <\/span><\/p>\n

This article is based on an analysis of the 2019 election I undertook, using a dataset developed together with the Hill Times<\/i>, Samara, and McGill University political scientist Jerome Black. We drew on a mix of official party biographies, media articles, social media, and name and photo analysis (we did not include Indigenous candidates and MPs). We also compared the 2019 results with those for the 2015 election and with visible minority representation in other countries\u2019 legislatures. Our results show that in 2019 in Canada the visible minority composition of MPs elected is reasonably representative of the immigrant and visible minority populations in the country as a whole. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are notable disparities in political participation among visible minority and immigrant groups. This reflects a variety of factors; for example, how they are concentrated in specific ridings, the proportion who become citizens, and whether their ethnic media encourages political participation and their political habits.
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In 2015 visible minority groups represented 12.9 percent of the all the candidates from the five main parties (Liberal Party of Canada [LPC], Conservative Party of Canada [CPC], New Democratic Party [NDP], Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois [BQ], Green Party of Canada [GPC]). In 2019 that proportion increased to 15.7 percent (with the addition of the People\u2019s Party of Canada, the PPC). The total number of visible minority MPs elected increased from 47 in 2015 (13.9 percent) to 51 in 2019 (15.1 percent).<\/span><\/p>\n

When we compare the proportion of visible minority candidates elected with that of the visible-minority population as a whole in Canada, which is 22.9 percent, that figure of 15.1 percent of all MPs could be seen as a problem of under-representation. But the number we should be comparing it with is the proportion of the visible minority population who are citizens, and thus eligible to run for office, 17.2 percent. Now, the proportion elected seems much more reasonable. <\/span><\/p>\n

In figure 1 I break down the visible minority candidates in the 2015 and 2019 elections by party. In all the parties the proportion of visible minority candidates increased in 2019. Even the People\u2019s Party of Canada, which argued for less immigration and an end to multiculturalism, fielded a sizeable proportion of visible minority candidates.<\/span><\/p>\n