Canadian Federal Lobbying Registrations from 1996 Onward

Lobbying registrations filed with the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists and its successor, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying, from January 31, 1996 onward. The dataset includes a primary file and secondary CSV files to represent one-to-many relationships for certain registration elements, accompanied by a data dictionary for definitions.

Use Cases

• Analyze the frequency and subject matter of communications between lobbyists and federal public office holders over time.
• Map relationships between lobbyists, their employers, and clients using the registration linkage files.
• Study changes in lobbying activity and registration patterns before and after the 2008 Lobbying Act using the long temporal coverage.

Strengths

• Long-term temporal coverage from January 1996 onward, spanning over a decade of regulatory change.
• Includes a data dictionary file providing definitions for all data elements, aiding interpretation.
• Provides structured secondary files to handle one-to-many relationships within the registration data.

Limitations

• The total number of rows and specific column features are not documented in the provided input.
• Manual entries within registrations are in the language of the user's choice, which may complicate automated text analysis.
• Data is sourced from mandatory filings, which may contain reporting errors or omissions.

Provenance

Source

Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada

Collection Method

Mandatory registrations filed under the Lobbyists Registration Act (pre-July 2008) and the Lobbying Act (post-July 2008).

Time Range

From January 31, 1996 onward.

Freshness

null

Geography

Canada (federal)