What is Hansard?
Answer
The official verbatim transcript of debates in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate, named after the British printer Thomas Hansard.
Explanation
Hansard is the official verbatim transcript of debates in the Canadian House of Commons (officially the Edited Hansard or House of Commons Debates) and the Senate (the Senate of Canada Debates). The name comes from Thomas Hansard, an early 19th-century British printer whose family business produced the official British parliamentary report from 1812 to 1889. Most Westminster legislatures around the world use the term Hansard for their parliamentary transcripts.
The Canadian House of Commons Debates have been produced continuously since Confederation in 1867, though formats and detail have varied. Modern Hansard is produced by the House of Commons Debates Service (officially the Editing and Translation Branch), with court reporters transcribing speeches and proceedings live. The Edited Hansard is published in both English and French at the same time, with full indexes to members, topics, and bills.
Hansard is published online at the Parliament of Canada website (parl.ca) for the same day's proceedings, typically by the next morning. Print copies of Hansard are bound into annual volumes for permanent archives at Library and Archives Canada and the Library of Parliament. Hansard is searchable online by date, member, topic, and bill, making it the principal research tool for Canadian parliamentary history. Major Canadian political events including Throne Speeches, Budget speeches, the 1942 conscription debates, the 1965 flag debates, and the 1981 to 1982 patriation debates are preserved in Hansard.
Hansard captures only verbal proceedings of the House and Senate. Other parliamentary materials include the Order Paper and Notice Paper (daily lists of bills and motions), the Journals (the official record of decisions), the Standing Committee Evidence (transcripts of committee meetings), and the Library of Parliament's Bills and Status of House Business. Provincial Legislative Assemblies and the territorial Legislative Assemblies produce their own Hansards, as do many city councils and other deliberative bodies. The official languages in which Hansard is produced are English and French; speeches in Indigenous languages and other languages are translated into English and French in the transcript.
Why this matters for your test
Hansard is the official record of Canadian parliamentary debate. Recognising its origin as a British parliamentary tradition and its role as the verbatim transcript of debates gives candidates two specific anchors.
Source: House of Commons Debates Service; Library of Parliament
