member of the House of Commons of Canada

Member of Parliament (MP; ) is a term typically used to describe an elected politician in the House of Commons of Canada, the lower chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Canada. Terminology The term's primary usage is in reference to the elected members of the House of Commons. In legislation it can also refer to the unelected members of the Senate. In common use, however, the title senator is typically used, 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 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. 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 in proportion to population, as determined by each decennial census, subject to the following exceptions made by the Constitution of Canada. 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.