Canadian politics

1. Sources for Background Information

1.1 Almanacs and Directories

• Canadian Almanac & Directory Database of the following directories: Associations Canada, Canadian Almanac & Directory, Canadian Environmental Directory, Canadian Parliamentary Guide, Directory of Libraries in Canada, Financial Services in Canada, and Governments Canada.
• Scott's Government Index
  Guide to Canada's Federal, Provincial and Territorial Governments

1.2 Biographies

• Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Canadian Who’s Who

1.3 Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

• Canadian Encyclopedia Online
• Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples
• Oxford Companion to Canadian History (Oxford Reference Online)

1.4 Yearbooks

• Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs
• Canada Year Book

2. Searching the Library Catalogue

Use the basic word(s) anywhere or advanced keyword search in the library catalogue. You can search using words like - Canada, Canad?, histor?, etc.

Search tips

Get more catalogue search tips.

Searching Using Subject headings

Often keywords–natural language terms–are too diverse to round up everything in the catalogue on your topic.

To overcome this problem, once you have found some relevant items by searching using your own words, click on the title and examine the full view of each, especially the section called "LC Subject", where you will find the uniform subject heading used for your topic, and then redo your search using the "Subject begins with ..." option.

3. Article and research databases

3.1 Core Databases

• International Political Science Abstracts (EBSCO)
  political science, international relations
• Canadian Research Index (ProQuest)
  index to publications by federal, provincial, and territorial governments; scientific and technical reports; policy, social economic and political reports; Statistics Canada monographs and serials
• CBCA Complete (ProQuest)
  Articles from Canadian journals, magazines, newspapers and business sources
• CPI.Q (Gale)
  Canadian Periodical Index. Includes popular and scholarly articles
• Canadian electronic library: Canadian public policy collection
  full text publications from Canadian public policy institutes, government agencies, advocacy groups, think-tanks, university presses, and public interest groups

3.2 Additional Article Databases

• Canadian Foreign Relations Index
  indexes journals, books, theses, research papers, conferences, unpublished papers and government documents relating to Canada's international relations. Citations only
• America History and Life (EBSCO)
  historical coverage of the USA and Canada from prehistory to the present
• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (ProQuest)
  anthropology, economics, politics and sociology
• Année politique au Québec, 1987-1998
  political science
• Érudit
  multidisciplinary, French language
• Repère
  multidisciplinary, French language
• PAIS International and PAIS Archive (1915-1927) (ProQuest)
  global public policy and social issues

3.3 Indigenous Peoples

• Autochtonia
  Index to books, articles, theses, reports, and more related to indigenous people in Quebec
• Bibliography of Native North Americans (EBSCO)
• Caninuit an annotated source of information about the magazines, journals, newspapers and newsletters of Canada's Inuit peoples and communities
• First Nations Periodical Index
• For Seven Generations an Information Legacy of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

3.4 Legal Topics

• CanLII
  full-text access to Supreme Court of Canada and other courts decisions
• Index to Legal Periodicals (Wilson)
  provides references to legal literature from a wide range of jurisdictions including Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. ILP indexes articles in law journals, law reviews, government publications and monographs and also provides access to tables of cases and statutes and to book reviews.
• LegalTrac (Gale)
  index to Canadian and American legal literature

3.5 Current Canadian News Sources

• Canadian Newsstand (ProQuest)
• Newscan.com

3.6 Think Tank Publications

• Caledon Institute Publications Search
• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Reports and Studies
• Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute
• Centre for International Policy Studies
• Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
• Conference Board e-Library
• C.D. Howe Publications Search
• Fraser Institute Publications Search
• Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) Publication Search
• Metropolis
  a network for comparative research and public policy development on migration, diversity, and immigrant integration in cities in Canada and around the world
• Policy.ca
  a growing database of public policy articles from a variety of organizations

4. Selected Internet Sites

4.1 Government information

• Search Engine: Find Canadian Government Publications on the Web (Google custom search) **Highly recommended! Includes federal and provincial sources.
• Canadian Government Information
  (Government Information Service). Extensive list of links and guides to finding documents
• Contemporary Canadian Government and Politics: A Practical Research Guide (Mount Allison University)
• Canadian Parliamentary Publications: a Research Guide (University of Toronto) - Guide to the major publications produced by Parliament since Confederation.
• How to Locate Canadian Current and Historical Legislation (University of Toronto) - Guide to finding provincial and federal legislation.
• The Parliament of Canada's web site

4.2 Elections and Public Opinion

• Elections Canada On-line
  The agency's official website. Includes reports, statistics, and voter information
• Canadian Elections
  Results of past elections and links to further election documentation
• 2008 Canadian federal election
  Extensive coverage of outcomes and polls, maintained by Simon Fraser University
• Canadian Political Parties
  Links to information about the parties
• Canadian Election Study
  Survey data and other publications on Canadian elections from 1997-2008
• Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
• Canadian Poll Databank
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
  international social science research data
• Hillwatch polling station
  News about public opinion polls
• Canadian Opinion Research Archive
  Canadian survey data dating back to the 1970s
• Nanos Public Opinion Research
  Reports and survey results
• Simon Fraser University Library Editorial Cartoons Collection
  Contains over 8000 original drawings published in Canadian newspapers between 1952 and the present.

4.3 Other websites

• Hill Times
  Independently-owned newsweekly that covers Canadian politics and government
• CPAC (Cable Public Affairs Channel)
  Provides video feeds of the proceedings of the House of Commons and parliamentary committees. Other public affairs programming includes coverage of conventions, elections, royal commissions, etc.
• Canada: A Reader's Guide, 2000 -
  Bibliography of recent “Core Canadiana” books covering a variety of disciplines. French and English
• Foreign Canadiana, 1990 -
  Canadian Studies titles published outside of Canada. French and English
• McGill Institute for the Study of Canada
• Canadian Political Science Association
• International Council for Canadian Studies

5. Other Resources

Related Subject Guides

• Canadian Government Information
  (Government Information Service)
• Canadian History
• Canadian Data (Electronic Data Resources Service )
• Newspapers
• Political Science
• Québec Studies