Political Science Data

CORA - the Canadian Opinion Research Archive
The Canadian Opinion Research Archive makes available commercial and independent surveys to the academic, research and journalistic communities. CORA contains hundreds of surveys collected by major commercial Canadian firms dating back to the 1970s. Surveys include: an Elections Canada survey of non-voters, surveys by the Canadian government on attitudes towards public policy, and surveys done for the Council for Canadian Unity. The last includes Portraits of Canada, an annual CIRC survey that tracks how attitudes of Canadians have evolved on a range of issues relating to the nature and well-being of the country and its citizens.

Canadian National Election Study Series
CES has been a rich source of data on Canadians' political behaviour and attitudes, measuring preferences on key political issues such as free trade with the US, social spending and Quebec’s place in Canada; political actors, such as parties, party leaders and the government; and social concerns, such as women’s place in the home, support for immigration, and attitudes toward gays and lesbians; as well as political preferences and engagement. ODESI hosts the Canadian Election Study (CES) data from 1965 to present. The link above will take you to ODESI. From there click on "Elections and Politics" from the left-hand navigation, then click on "Canada". The most current CES is also available from here.

Elections Canada Research
Reports on surveys of electors, data on turnout, party and election finance, surveys of candidates and election officials.

General Social Survey (GSS)
Access GSS data from ODESI. From ODESI, click on "SOcial Surveys" from the left-hand navigation, then click on "CANADA", then "General Social Survey (GSS)". The Canadian GSS is one of a number of Statistics Canada surveys of the Canadian public, and is conducted semi-annually. It contains a standard ‘core’ of demographic and attitudinal questions that are asked regularly, plus topics of special interest ranging from Time Use to Crime and Victimization. The Canadian GSS is a part of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), and comparable data is collected in over 40 other countries.

For a list of other Statistics Canada Surveys from where you can download more data, visit the ODESI portal.
Statistics Canada has conducted a number of other surveys of the Canadian public that may be of interest.

Canadian Census Data
The Census of Canada is the best source for information on the population and demographics of Canada.

Project Canada
Begun in 1975, this survey was constructed to provide data on social issues, intergroup relations and religion in Canada. The project has taken representative samples of Canadians every five years, creating panel studies through which social change and stability can be monitored. Data for 1975 - 1995 is available from the American Religion Data Archive; more current data will be made available through the researcher's site at some point. The ARDA also houses the 1996 God and Society in North America survey.

ICPSR - the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research
The world's largest archive of social research data, including U. S. and international studies and polls on all topics. Some noteable surveys include: American Public Opinion and United States Foreign Policy Series, the Eurobarometer Survey Series, Foreign Conflict Behavior, 1950-1968, and too many others to count, let alone list.

Terrorism and Preparedness Data Archive
The TPDRC archives and distributes data collected by government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and researchers about the nature of intra- (domestic) and international terrorism incidents, organizations, perpetrators, and victims; governmental and nongovernmental responses to terror, including primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions; and citizen's attitudes towards terrorism, terror incidents, and the response to terror.

Pew Research Center For The People & The Press
The Pew Research Center is an independent American opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. They are best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and for their polling that charts trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes. To access data you will need to create a free account.

Odum Institute Public Opinion Poll Question Database
The Odum Institute houses the Louis Harris Data Center, the national depository for publicly available survey data collected by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. More than 1,200 Harris Polls from as early as 1958 are archived at the Center. A few studies cover Canada, including the 1991 Health Care in Three Nations study and the 1991 Five Nations Elderly Survey. Many of the datasets, including the Harris polls, are available for direct download.

Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
Participating countries (including Canada) include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables. The studies are then merged into a single, free, public dataset for use in comparative study. Complete data files for many of the contributing countries' election studies are also linked from this site.

World Values Survey and European Values Surveys
The series is designed to enable a cross-national comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe. Data is currently available for 1981-1984, 1990-1993, 1995-1997, 1999-2004, and 2005-2008.

UNData (formerly the U.N. Common Database)
Data collected by the United Nations - a very comprehensive source of comparitive international statistics, covering demographics, social issues, finance, governance, trade, etc.

SourceOECD
Comparative data for OECD countries on government expenditures, health, education systems, population growth, economic output, etc.

Gary King Dataverse
Includes 10 Million Dyadic Events, a database of international conflict events, each coded to the exact day they occur or become known. This site also houses other datasets for quantitative political science research.

International Military Intervention, 1989-2005
Documents military intervention across international boundaries by regular armed forces of independent states). "Military interventions are defined operationally in this collection as the movement of regular troops or forces (airborne, seaborne, shelling, etc.) of one country inside another, in the context of some political issue or dispute"(Pearson and Baumann, 1993).

Data from the Centre for the Study of Civil War
Includes data on armed conflicts, governance, natural resources, ethnic composition and some basic demographic and economic data.

Federal

• Elections Canada
• Results page (detailed results since 1867 on-site or linked)
• Canadian Elections Database Created by the School of Public Policy, UCalgary. Federal, provincial, territorial elections since 1867. Browsable by electoral district as well.

Provinces and Territories

Newfoundland and Labrador

• Elections Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia

• Elections Nova Scotia
• Results and Stats

Prince Edward Island

• Elections Prince Edward Island
• Results

New Brunswick

• Elections NB (Provincial General Election data available from 1967-2020)

Quebec

• Elections Quebec (English)
• Detailed results (1973-current)

Ontario

• Elections Ontario
• Results and Stats (1995 onwards, earlier results not online)

Manitoba

• Elections Manitoba
• Detailed results since 1999

Saskatchewan

• Elections Saskatchewan
• Historical results

Alberta

• Elections Alberta

British Columbia

• Elections BC

Yukon

• Elections Yukon

Northwest Territories*

• Elections NWT

Nunavut*

• Elections Nunavut

* Note: elections in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are non-partisan.