Dataset on the Demographics of Canadian Federal Election Candidates (2008-2019)

This dataset reports on a new effort to track candidate diversity in Canadian elections. The dataset covers 4,516 candidates who ran in the 2008, 2011, 2015, and 2019 federal elections, and includes novel data on their race, Indigenous background, and age, alongside information on gender, occupation, prior electoral experience, and electoral outcome. The data can be used to track diversity among electoral candidates over time or merged with other sources to answer district-level questions about representational diversity, electoral dynamics, vote choice, and political communications.