Resources

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Group Chat Teaching Resources

The five-episode series covers a wide range of themes, including society and technology, diasporic identity and politics, democratic innovation, law and history, and policy, power and governance.

See a problem in Canada you want to fix? Can an e-petition help?

An electronic petition ("e-petition") is an online form used to draw attention to an issue of public interest or concern and to request that the House of Commons, the Government of Canada, a minister of the Crown, or a member of the Parliament take or refrain from some action.

What does it mean for Justin Trudeau to “prorogue” Parliament?

On January 6, 2025, Governor General Mary Simon granted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s request to prorogue Parliament until March 24, 2025.

Are you Candidate Curious?

Resources for Canadians considering elected office

Featured Voices

Born in Happy Hill, Grenada, the Honourable Jean Augustine became the first Black Canadian woman to be elected to the House of Commons.

Les Personnages de la Chambre Ressources d’Apprentissage

Le Centre Samara pour la démocratie a conclu un partenariat avec le Réseau pour l’enseignement des sciences sociales du Canada (RESCC) dans le but de créer des ressources curriculaires sur la base de notre balado Les Personnages de la Chambre.

Humans of the House Teaching Resources

The Samara Centre for Democracy partnered with the Social Studies Educators Network of Canada/Réseau pour l’enseignment des sciences sociales du Canada (SSENC/RESCC) to create curriculum-connected resources based on our podcast Humans of the House.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Electoral Reform

A national conversation about how we, as citizens, choose our representatives is an excellent opportunity to get Canadians engaged—to make democracy more accessible, more familiar, and more relevant to them.

What is a Speech from the Throne?

Every new session of Parliament begins with a Speech from the Throne. What is it and why do we need it?

Resources

Group Chat

Canada’s democracy is under threat, and the stakes are high. But when we focus on how we are connected, we find the power to act - to strengthen what’s working and fix what’s not.

Humans of the House Podcast

You know what a politician sounds like on the job. But once they leave office, that’s when they can share what’s truly on their minds. Join host Sabreena Delhon as she speaks with former Members of Parliament, to hear, in their own words, what this job is really like. Their stories are woven together in a six-part series that explores an MPs path to politics, why they left, and what it cost them to serve their communities.

Les Personnages de la Chambre

Les Personnages de la Chambre est un nouveau balado qui présente six anciens et anciennes député.e.s de la Chambre des communes du Canada qui décrivent, dans leur propre voix, la réalité de cette profession.

Resources

Verified

In a time when democracy feels increasingly at risk, Canadians need a way to understand how politics is playing out online.

Teaching Resources

The Samara Centre for Democracy has developed teaching resources to help educators across different spaces teach about active citizenship in Canada. These resources are designed to empower students (and learners from all walks of life) so they can evaluate and participate in strengthening Canadian democracy. These resources provide an accessible way to enhance curriculum and programming about Canadian politics and society.

SAMbot

Online abuse is a barrier to civic engagement and active participation in our democracy. It can disrupt political conversations and even prevent people from entering politics. Our SAMbot project measures abusive content that candidates and political parties receive online during Canadian elections. We do this to illuminate the realities of abuse on the digital campaign trail and the barriers to civic engagement created by technology’s influence on our democratic culture.

MP Exit Interview

The MP Exit Interview project is the first ever systematic collection of interviews with former Parliamentarians in Canada. Since 2008, the Samara Centre for Democracy has interviewed over 160 former Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum to learn more about the practice of politics in Canada. We continue to collect interviews on a rolling basis.

Democracy 360

The Samara Centre’s Democracy 360 report cards provide a broad and ongoing assessment of the state of Canada’s democratic culture. Democracy 360 combines quantifiable indicators, focused on three areas: communication, participation, and political leadership. Instead of asking Canadians their opinions on current events, policy issues, or political personalities, the public opinion surveys underpinning this research focus on enduring indicators of democratic health and vitality: whether Canadians get involved in political decisions that affect them, whether communication channels between elected leaders and those they represent are open and being used effectively, and whether the electorate believes that MPs and political parties are capable of looking out for their interests. Democracy 360 allows Canadians to compare and assess their democracy over time. First published in 2015, the Democracy 360 was published again in 2017 and 2019 to measure improvement or decline.

Democracy Monitor

Democracy Monitor looks at the profound effect that COVID-19 had on the functioning of Canada’s democracy. Various themes explored in this series include: how legislatures (federal, provincial and territorial) sought to adapt during the pandemic, digital contact tracing, hybrid virtual Parliament, and how Canada compared in emergency lawmaking with other Westminster Parliaments.

Field Guide to Online Political Conversations

Bringing together insights from the study of difficult conversations and social media, as well as Samara Centre survey data, The Field Guide to Online Political Conversations examines what’s going wrong in online civic discussion, why it matters, what government action we should expect, and how citizens can change the nature of online political conversations.