Confused? This page lists common terms and provide links to references.
| Term | Meaning | Explanation |
| BMP | Bicameral Mixed-member Proportional | The name we have given to the system described on this website. |
| ERRE | Special Committee on Electoral Reform | The Committee was appointed to identify and conduct a study of viable alternate voting systems to replace the first-past-the-post system, as well as to examine mandatory voting and online voting. |
| FPTP | First-Past-The-Post | FPTP is the voting system currently used in Canada, and many other English-speaking countries. Each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate in his or her electoral district, and the candidate who receives the most votes, which need not be a majority, wins. |
| MMP | Mixed-member Proportional | MMP representation is a hybrid two-tier voting system developed in Germany and used in other countries, including New Zealand. |
| MP | Member of Parliament | Your representative in the House of Commons. |
| SCC | Supreme Court of Canada | The highest court in the land. In 2014 they answered questions on Senate reform known as the Senate Reform Reference. They laid out some ground rules for how the Senate could be changed. |
| STV | Single Transferable Vote | STV is designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat constituencies (electoral districts). |
| “7/50” procedure | General amendment procedure | The “7/50” procedure is short-hand for one of the formulas for amending the Constitution. It requires resolutions of the Senate, the House of Commons and the legislative assemblies of at least two-thirds of the provinces (hence 7) that make up at least 50% of Canada’s population, as per sections 38 and 42(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982. |