Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980

This database contains preliminary voters lists for general elections in Canada, 1935–1980.

Historical Background

By 1935, the year of the earliest voting records in this database, the franchise had been extended to both men and women age 21 and over for federal elections in Canada. The last property qualifications were done away with in 1948, and exclusions for Inuit and Indians living on reserves were eliminated in 1950 and 1960. In 1970, the voting age was lowered to 18 and the franchise reserved for Canadian citizens, though some British subjects retained their right to vote until 1975.

What You Can Find in the Records

This database contains voters lists created for general elections in Canada for the years 1935–1980. Lists are organized by polling district within each province and from there by polling station number and address. The forms varied some over the years, but they typically included name, post office or street address, and occupation. They sometimes indicate marital status for women in lieu of occupation.

Because they were created during various election years, these lists make useful census substitutes.

This database includes the following general election years. Those marked by asterisk have been indexed. Others are available for browsing only.

• 1935*
• 1940*
• 1945*
• 1949*
• 1953*
• 1957*
• 1958*
• 1962*
• 1963*
• 1965*
• 1968*
• 1972*
• 1974*
• 1979
• 1980

The index for this collection was created using text recognition (OCR) software. Records were not transcribed. Because this collection uses OCR technology, we encourage you to correct any errors you find in the data by going to the image and editing the name in the correction panel at the bottom of the page.

Background information on Canadian voting comes from the Elections Canada website.

Updates:
14 Jan 2020: Changes were made to improve the performance of this collection. No new records were added.