Wikipedia:WikiProject Electoral districts in Canada

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Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organize information in articles related to Electoral districts in Canada. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list there.

For more information on WikiProjects, please see Wikipedia:WikiProjects and Wikipedia:WikiProject best practices.

[edit] Scope

Wikipedia can become the most comprehensive source for federal voting history and electoral district information anywhere. Currently relevant information is scattered throughout a variety of sources on government, media, educational and political-oriented websites, as well as at Elections Canada.

Extracting and sorting information from these sources and integrating it into Wikipedia in an easy-to-understand layout can be achieved with the collective efforts of editors familiar with the subject. Specifically, this effort needs editors who understand Wikipedia, government, and voting; those who can design efficient and aesthetically-pleasing pages; those who can manipulate Wikipedia code to present these designs in an easy-to-edit code; those who can find, use, and reference sources of information (on the internet and in print); those who are familiar with the details and local issues of specific electoral districts; and those who can oversee the integration of information into hundreds of articles.

The electoral district articles have already been created and stubbed. Many have already been developed, to varying degrees, but none are complete. This is not an exercise in dumping as much info into an article as possible. It is about quality; making it comprehensive yet easy-to-understand. The reader should be able to understand what it is and what it is about with just a glance, get a better understanding after reading it and even more details after further analysis. The articles are at a stage now where there are options and alternatives to choose. What sections are essential? What information is relevant? What layout should be used?

Below are links to pages that deal with proposed section headings and layouts. In each page there will be a debate on what information should be presented, how it should be presented, and even if that section should exist. This is concensus-building so if you support an idea please say so. However, it is not a vote wherein the majority rules, rather the best arguments will win. Ideas need to be accompanied by clear, direct arguements. There are hundreds of districts, so please pick one and provide an example of your idea. Following this fragmented discussion a proto-type article will be created and put through Peer Review process: first on the Wikipedia:Canadian wikipedians' notice board, then a second prototype on the Wikipedia-wide peer review.

[edit] Structure

The following pages are intended for discussion primarily on federal electoral districts. By and large federal and provincial pages should be able to share a common format, however some provinces may have unique circumstances (i.e. referendum results in Quebec, Senate nominee election results in Alberta). Should you wish to discuss a unique provincial electoral district issue, please create a subpage under the relevant section below so as to not confuse the overall picture in the discussions.

[edit] /Prototype

A proposal to negotiate from.

[edit] Format

Please add your comments to one of the following debates. If you create a new page please list it here.

/Naming conventions

As with any article, the most simple name is ideal. In the case that the name of a riding is not shared with any other riding or place, then the name should simply be that. For example: Tobique-Mactaquac. However, when there are districts with the same name in several provinces, or in the same province on both the provincial and federal level or, in some cases, on both levels of government in more than one province, the naming scheme can become complicated and therefore inconsistant. As a results, it is ideal to develop a common naming convention which takes into account as many possible situations to ensure consistency.

/Ontario

Some federal and provincial Ontario ridings entirely overlap. Should there be one article for each or one article for both?

/Page layout

What order should the sections be listed? Where should the map be placed? Can there be an infobox or template?

/Infobox

Is an infobox a plausible idea? Can there be an infobox that is relevant to every province? Should different provinces have different infoboxes?

I think an infobox is necessary, both for historical ridings as for current ones; one boxframe should be "status" with either "defunct" as an entry, with dates, or "currently represented by Joe Blow (Tory/Grit/NDP/whatever). Also a riding map, and in cases where the boundary has been mutated the colour-scheme on the map should maybe be able to reflect the gerrymandered bits accurately (this means overlaying two different maps in order to produce a new one with both boundaries and the respective areas coloured in).Skookum1 05:50, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Agree with infobox as stated by Skookum1; should also include riding population total --Yannick 03:24, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

/Neutrality

Do the principles of 'equal time' apply to current electoral district articles?

No; because some ridings are unremarkable (perhaps) in their politics, and an MP from one party might not have as much to be said about as an MP from another party. Wikipedia is not electoral material; it is information, pure and simple.Skookum1 05:50, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed sections

These sections originated stubs left behind by an editor a long time. They may be renamed, removed, or supplemented. Please add your comments to one of the following debates. If you create a new page please list it here.

/Introduction

The first thing people see. What should be mentioned? What is essential?

/Demographics

Lots of census data out there, but what is relevant? and how can it be best presented?

/Geography

What are the implications of where the borders were drawn? What features should the maps illustrate?

/History

The origin and fate of an electoral district as expressed through Representation Orders.

/History/Members of Parliament

Chronology of Members of Parliament

/Geography&History

Proposal for a combined Geography and History section.

Hmm. See notes below re table.Skookum1 05:54, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

/Member of Parliament

For current electoral districts, who represents them and what are they doing?

/Election results

The meat of the article. What kind of table is the best? What data should the table show?

/References

How to encourage futher reading without overwhelming, what to present in external links and how to properly reference material.

[edit] Similar and related WikiProjects

Similar WikiProjects are:

[edit] Related Regional notice boards

Canadian wikipedians' notice board

[edit] Participants

If you wish to help out, leave your signature here. It would also be nice to know your riding, although that is optional.

Earl Andrew - Ottawa South
Jord - Ottawa South / Tobique-Mactaquac
Spinboy - Nepean-Carleton
E Pluribus Anthony - ~~Hell~~Scarborough Centre
maclean25 - wish I wasn't in Prince George—Peace River
Fawcett5 - wishes he was in Prince George—Peace River
Ground Zero | t - Toronto Centre
User:CJCurrie
Zhatt - I can help a bit, but not much. I'm in Vancouver Centre and worked for Elections Canada in the 2004 general election.
The Tom - Kootenay—Columbia in spirit, Hamilton Centre in practice.
User:Cloveious - Calgary Southeast, Jason Kenney yay! federally Calgary Hays provincially, Art Johnston bleh!
Luigizanasi - ~~Paradise~~Yukon (electoral district).
Volrath50 - Haldimand-Norfolk
Skookum1 - Burnaby-Douglas; Assigning myself to write the historical/defunct provincial/federal ridings in BC
Kirjtc2 - Fredericton (federal), Fredericton-Nashwaaksis (provincial)
Smith87 - Ottawa-Vanier
p_b1999 - New Westminster—Coquitlam (Federal), Coquitlam-Maillardville (Provincial)
FreshFruitsRule - Glengarry-Prescott-Russell
Omnieiunium - West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country I am helping out with the Liberal campaign here so I do know a lot about the candidates and history of the riding.
Kelownian - Kelowna—Lake Country
Timc - Kitchener—Waterloo. I'm willing to help out with whatever you need.
Kmsiever - Lethbridge
Dl2000 - Ottawa Centre
Super cyclist — Federal: Sault Ste. Marie; Provincial Sault Ste. Marie
Abebenjoe Federal: Parkdale–High Park; Provincial: Parkdale–High Park
—Cuiviénen (not Canadian)
NDPJohnny (Edmonton East, Edmonton Highlands-Norwood)
Qclibrarian I am assigning myself to write the Quebec Senate District descriptions

[edit] Goals

To create articles on all current and historical electoral districts in Canada, including federal districts and districts in the provinces and territories of Canada.
To develop common standards and formats for pages on Canadian electoral districts

[edit] Projects

[edit] Tasks

I think that all federal riding article now have election results tables for general elections and by-elections for the period 1867-2006, although it is possible that some have been missed. There is still much work to be done to improve these for anyone who is interested:

The results are generally shown in the "CanElec1" format illustrated above. This means that they could be expanded to include % of popular vote, % change since previous election, and campaign expenditures (for recent elections).
The candidates' names are generally shown in the "LASTNAME, Firstname" format. I think that most people would agree that the "Firstname Lastname" format would be preferable.
Links could be added to candidates' names where articles exist. It is not a good idea to link all names without regard to whether or not articles exist because that leads to misdirection, either now or in the future, to article about other people who have the same name as the candidate. My favourite example is when someone linked the names of all of the minor candidates in a Toronto mayoral election. One of the links took the reader to the Kevin Richardson article. This sort of mislinking makes Wikipedia look bad.

Ground Zero | t 19:13, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Riding of the Month

The "Riding of the Month" Collaboration is an effort to improve riding articles in Wikipedia, with an aim toward creating a feature-standard article during the month-long cooperative editing process. Anyone can nominate an article, or vote for a nominated article.

It is similar to Wikipedia:Canada collaboration

[edit] General strategy and discussion forums

/General
/Strategy

[edit] Templates

[edit] Infoboxes

[edit] Stub templates

This article about a Canadian electoral district is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[edit] Other templates

	WikiProject Electoral districts in Canada
This article is part of WikiProject Electoral districts in Canada, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to Electoral districts in Canada. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

{{Subst:CanRiding|ID = 110|name = Cape Breton South (1903–1914)}}

Riding history for Cape Breton South (1903–1914) from the Library of Parliament

Provinces/Territories for which {{CanRiding}} has been applied to all current and defunct federal electoral districts:

Manitoba, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan

Category:Canada riding templates

As an example:

Federal Ridings in Newfoundland and Labrador
Liberal	Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor \| Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte \| Labrador \| Random—Burin—St. George's
Conservative	Avalon \| St. John's East \| St. John's South—Mount Pearl

Federal Ridings in Atlantic Canada
Newfoundland and Labrador	Avalon \| Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor \| Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte \| Labrador \| Random—Burin—St. George's \| St. John's East \| St. John's South—Mount Pearl
Prince Edward Island	Cardigan \| Charlottetown \| Egmont \| Malpeque
Nova Scotia	Cape Breton—Canso \| Central Nova \| Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley \| Dartmouth—Cole Harbour \| Halifax \| Halifax West \| Kings—Hants \| Sackville—Eastern Shore \| South Shore—St. Margaret's \| Sydney—Victoria \| West Nova
New Brunswick	Acadie—Bathurst \| Beauséjour \| Fredericton \| Fundy Royal \| Madawaska—Restigouche \| Miramichi \| Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe \| New Brunswick Southwest \| Saint John \| Tobique—Mactaquac

[edit] Categories

[edit] Lists

[edit] Articles

[edit] Wikipedia articles on Electoral districts in Canada

Electoral district (Canada)

[edit] Wikipedia surveys

[edit] WikiProject Deletion sorting

Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting is a new effort that attempts to classify various articles nominated for votes for deletion by major categories. The Electoral districts in Canada-related articles at VFD are listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Electoral districts in Canada.

[edit] Em-dash use

I noticed that the project is using em-dashes in riding names to differentiate from hyphens internally. I started making changes to en-dashes (which are not hyphens), as the em-dash is used for something else entirely—like brackets, actually—and should not be used in riding names. Someone mentioned that this issue was discussed, but I don't see where, and it is clear that the em-dash is the wrong thing to use here. Comments, please. OZLAWYER talk 19:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Osgoodelawyer and myself were discussing this on our user pages. There was previously some discussion of this a couple years ago at Talk:List of Canadian federal electoral districts. However, Wikipedia:WikiProject Electoral districts in Canada/Naming conventions says nothing about the issue. Personally I do think the em-dashes should be kept, as this seems to be the official typography as used in hansard. - SimonP 20:07, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Mmm. I'm with SimonP... while it's slightly weird typography, it is what is used. (Indeed, in situations where an em-dash is unavailable, ridings are often represented with the double hyphen, ie Cariboo--Prince George, which is emphatically a substitution used for em-dashes, not en-dashes.) To be fair, it's not like using an en-dash in such situations is any more grammatically correct (which is in 90% of cases a means of expressing "to", such as 9 pm – 10 pm), and my sense is that it has been adopted as official style on account of whatever dash-using practices are in French Canada, where they hyphenate (or sometimes en-dash?) compound nouns and thus need to keep Notre-Dame-de-la-Grace—Lachine and its ilk happy (The one English case that benefits is Chatham-Kent—Essex). One thing that always bugged me was that it seems to be interchangingly used as a stand-in for "...and..." or in other cases for "...specifically, the subset around..." You've got your Vegreville—Wainrights and Carleton—Mississippi Millses on the one hand and your Toronto—Danforths and Calgary—Nose Hills on the other. Grammar geekery + Political anorakery = Trouble The Tom 20:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Elections Canada appears to use the em dash in its official publications as well, so it's not just a wacky Hansard typesetting tradition. French/Québec riding names have plenty of hyphens in them, but no obvious en dashes, so the reason remains obscure. The official use is the only possible justification for keeping the em dashes, in my view. The en dash is perfectly appropriate for separating hyphenated compound names (though I do see that our article on dashes weasels on this point, claiming objection from "some authorities"). The em dash is not ordinarily used this way, so I'd say that the en dash would, in the absence of official examples, be the correct choice. It'd be interesting to learn the history of its (eccentric) use in riding names. —Eric S. Smith 13:59, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Since Elections Canada uses emdashes for the French linguistic reason that the Tom identifies, and, as noted above, double hyphens to stand in for emdashes, who are we to change that? Should we be saying that the Elections Canada policy is wrong, and, for Wikipedia purposes, the names will be changed to use hyphens/endashes instead? It is true that most English-speaking poeple would assume hyphens are used, but I believe that the hypenated versions for the ridings names have all been created as redirects to the correct emdash versions, so we needn't worry about readers not being able to find the articles.

As an example, Montmorency–Charlevoix–Haute-Côte-Nord would become "Montmorency-Charlevoix-Haute-Côte-Nord", which I do not think is an improvement. It is not clear how many parts there are to the name of the riding.

Finally, there are so very many articles -- probably hundreds -- that would have to be moved to implement a new policy, and I think it would be better to spend our time improving the articles than on moving them and fixing links to the new names. That would take a vast amount of time. Ground Zero | t 21:15, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

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Categories: Canadian constituency stubs | WikiProject Electoral districts in Canada articles | WikiProject Canada