FedMCP - Canadian Government Accountability Platform

A comprehensive MCP (Model Context Protocol) server providing deep access to Canadian federal parliamentary, legal, and accountability data through Claude and other LLM applications.

42 tools | 8 data sources | Full government accountability | Advanced analytics

🎯 What is FedMCP?

FedMCP is a research and transparency platform that gives you unprecedented access to Canadian government data:

Track who is lobbying government and on what issues
Monitor MP expenses and spending patterns
Follow citizen petitions and government responses
Search parliamentary debates and voting records
Analyze legislative progress and bill sponsorship
Browse Canadian case law and legal precedents
Detect conflicts of interest through cross-source analysis
Compare MP performance across multiple accountability metrics

Perfect for journalists, researchers, activists, and engaged citizens.

📊 Data Sources (8 Total)

OpenParliament API - Debates, votes, MPs, bills, committees
House of Commons Hansard - Official parliamentary transcripts
LEGISinfo - Legislative tracking and bill details
CanLII API - Canadian case law and legislation (requires free API key)
Represent API - Postal code to MP lookup
MP Expenditures - Quarterly proactive disclosure data
House Petitions - Citizen petitions and government responses
Lobbying Registry - Federal lobbying registrations and communications (100,000+ records)

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/northernvariables/FedMCP.git
cd FedMCP

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

Configuration

For CanLII access, obtain a free API key:

Request key from https://www.canlii.org/en/feedback/feedback.html
Add to environment:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add: CANLII_API_KEY=your_key_here

Claude Desktop Setup

Add to your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fedmcp": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "fedmcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "CANLII_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and the FedMCP tools will appear in your MCP tools menu.

🔧 Available Tools (42 Total)

Parliamentary Data (17 tools)

search_debates - Search House debates by keyword
list_debates - List recent debates with temporal filtering
search_bills - Search bills by number or keywords
get_bill - Get specific bill details from LEGISinfo
list_bills - List bills with filtering options
get_bill_votes - Get all votes on a specific bill
list_mps - List Members of Parliament with filters
search_politician - Search for MPs and Senators by name
get_politician_voting_history - Get complete voting records
list_votes - List parliamentary votes with filtering
get_vote_details - Get detailed vote info with individual ballots
list_committees - List parliamentary committees
get_committee_details - Get committee meetings and members
find_mp_by_postal_code - Find your MP by postal code
search_hansard - Search Hansard transcripts for quotes
get_hansard_sitting - Get complete sitting transcript
search_topic_across_sources - Search across bills, debates, votes, Hansard

MP Accountability (11 tools)

get_mp_expenses - Get MP quarterly expenditure data
search_mp_expenses - Search expenses by name/party/constituency
get_top_mp_spenders - Rank MPs by spending category
get_party_spending_averages - Compare party spending patterns
get_mp_activity_scorecard - Comprehensive MP performance metrics
analyze_mp_bills - Analyze MP legislative record and success rate
compare_mp_performance - Side-by-side comparison of 2-5 MPs
analyze_mp_voting_participation - Voting attendance and patterns
analyze_party_discipline - Find MPs who voted against party line
get_bill_legislative_progress - Track bill journey through Parliament
detect_conflicts_of_interest - Cross-reference expenses, lobbying, voting

Petitions (2 tools)

search_petitions - Search citizen petitions by keyword/sponsor
get_petition_details - Get petition with government response

Lobbying & Influence (5 tools)

search_lobbying_registrations - Search active lobbying registrations
search_lobbying_communications - Find reported lobbying meetings
get_top_lobbying_clients - Rank organizations by lobbying activity
analyze_bill_lobbying - See who's lobbying on specific bills
analyze_industry_influence - Industry-wide lobbying analysis

Analytics (1 tool)

track_committee_activity - Analyze committee productivity and focus

Legal Data (5 tools - requires CanLII API key)

search_cases - Search case law by database and keywords
get_case - Get case metadata
get_case_citations - Get citing/cited cases and legislation
search_legislation - Browse federal and provincial legislation
list_legal_databases - List available court/tribunal databases

💡 Use Case Examples

🔍 Investigating Corporate Influence

Scenario: You want to know who's lobbying on Bill C-11 (Online Streaming Act)

1. User: "What organizations are lobbying on Bill C-11?"
   Tool: analyze_bill_lobbying(bill_code="c-11", parliament_session="44-1")
   → Returns list of organizations, lobbyists, meeting counts

2. User: "Show me the actual lobbying communications about C-11"
   Tool: search_lobbying_communications(subject_keyword="c-11 online streaming")
   → Returns meeting dates, government officials met, specific topics

3. User: "How did MPs vote on C-11?"
   Tool: get_bill_votes(bill_code="c-11")
   → Returns all votes with individual MP ballots

4. User: "Check for conflicts of interest"
   Tool: detect_conflicts_of_interest(politician_name="[MP Name]", date_range_months=12)
   → Cross-references their votes, lobbying meetings, and expenses

📊 MP Performance Analysis

Scenario: Comparing your MP to others in the same party

User: "Compare the performance of Chrystia Freeland and Mark Holland"
Tool: compare_mp_performance(mp_names=["Chrystia Freeland", "Mark Holland"])

Returns:
- Bills sponsored and success rates
- Voting participation rates
- Committee memberships
- Petition sponsorships
- Quarterly expenses by category
- Recent lobbying communications
- Side-by-side performance metrics

🗳️ Tracking Citizen Engagement

Scenario: Following petition activity on climate change

1. User: "Show me active petitions about climate change"
   Tool: search_petitions(keyword="climate change", category="Open", limit=20)
   → Returns open petitions with signature counts

2. User: "Get details on petition e-4519"
   Tool: get_petition_details(petition_number="e-4519")
   → Returns full petition text, sponsor, signatures by province, status

3. User: "Has the government responded?"
   → Shows government response text if available

💰 Expense Monitoring

Scenario: Analyzing MP spending patterns

1. User: "Who are the top spenders on travel this quarter?"
   Tool: get_top_mp_spenders(category="travel", fiscal_year=2026, quarter=1, limit=10)
   → Ranks MPs by travel expenses

2. User: "Compare average spending by party"
   Tool: get_party_spending_averages(fiscal_year=2026, quarter=1)
   → Shows Liberal vs Conservative vs NDP vs etc. average expenses

3. User: "Show me expenses for Pierre Poilievre"
   Tool: search_mp_expenses(name="Pierre Poilievre", fiscal_year=2026, quarter=1)
   → Returns detailed breakdown: salaries, travel, hospitality, contracts

🏛️ Legislative Research

Scenario: Understanding a bill's journey through Parliament

1. User: "What's the current status of Bill C-3?"
   Tool: get_bill_legislative_progress(bill_code="c-3", parliament_session="44-1")
   → Shows: current stage, all completed stages, timeline, sponsor

2. User: "Who sponsored this bill and what else have they sponsored?"
   Tool: analyze_mp_bills(politician_name="[Sponsor Name]", limit=20)
   → Returns MP's legislative record, success rate, bill topics

3. User: "Search for related debates"
   Tool: search_topic_across_sources(keyword="Bill C-3", limit=10)
   → Searches bills, debates, votes, Hansard in one query

⚖️ Legal Research

Scenario: Finding case law on Charter rights

1. User: "Find Supreme Court cases about section 7 of the Charter"
   Tool: search_cases(database_id="csc-scc", keyword="section 7 charter life liberty security", limit=10)
   → Returns recent SCC decisions

2. User: "Get details on R. v. Jordan"
   Tool: get_case(database_id="csc-scc", case_id="2016scc27")
   → Returns full case metadata, date, judges, subject areas

3. User: "What cases have cited R. v. Jordan?"
   Tool: get_case_citations(database_id="csc-scc", case_id="2016scc27", citing_cases=True)
   → Returns all cases that have cited this precedent

🔴 Corruption Detection

Scenario: Identifying unusual patterns

User: "Generate a full activity scorecard for MP [Name]"
Tool: get_mp_activity_scorecard(politician_name="[Name]")

Returns comprehensive report:
- Bills sponsored (count, topics, success rate)
- Petitions sponsored
- Voting participation rate
- Recent votes cast
- Quarterly expenses breakdown
- Recent lobbying communications with this MP
- Red flags: unusual spending, frequent lobbying meetings, voting anomalies

🏗️ Architecture

Client Structure

All clients follow consistent patterns with built-in rate limiting and retry logic:

OpenParliamentClient (clients/openparliament.py) - Pagination-aware API client with automatic next-page fetching
OurCommonsHansardClient (clients/ourcommons.py) - XML parser for Hansard transcripts with UTF-8 BOM handling
LegisInfoClient (clients/legisinfo.py) - Access to LEGISinfo bill and legislation data
CanLIIClient (clients/canlii.py) - REST API with 2 req/sec rate limiting (0.5s minimum interval)
RepresentClient (clients/represent.py) - Postal code lookup via Open North API
MPExpenditureClient (clients/expenditure.py) - House of Commons proactive disclosure data
PetitionsClient (clients/petitions.py) - XML API for petition data with client-side filtering
LobbyingRegistryClient (clients/lobbying.py) - Downloads and caches federal lobbying data (~90MB)

Rate Limiting

All HTTP clients use RateLimitedSession with:

Proactive rate limiting: Configurable minimum interval between requests
Reactive retry logic: Exponential backoff for 429/5xx errors
Automatic retries: Up to 5 attempts with increasing delays

Caching Strategy

Lobbying Registry:

Downloads 100,000+ records (~90MB compressed) on first use
Cached at ~/.cache/fedmcp/lobbying/
Optional auto-update after 7 days
Instant loading on subsequent uses

📈 Recent Enhancements

Phase 8: Advanced Analytics (November 2025) 🆕

✅ Industry Influence Analysis - Track corporate lobbying across entire industries
✅ MP Performance Comparison - Side-by-side metrics for 2-5 MPs
✅ Cross-source accountability engine with 42 total tools

Phase 7: Multi-Source Correlation (November 2025) 🆕

✅ MP Activity Scorecard - Comprehensive metrics from 6+ data sources
✅ Committee Activity Tracking - Productivity and focus analysis
✅ Conflict of Interest Detection - Cross-reference expenses, lobbying, voting

Phase 6: Bill Analysis (November 2025)

✅ MP Bill Analysis - Legislative record and success rates
✅ Party Bill Comparison - Compare party legislative effectiveness
✅ Bill Progress Tracking - Detailed timeline through Parliament

Phase 5: Lobbying Registry (November 2025)

✅ Lobbying Search - 100,000+ registrations, 350,000+ communications
✅ Top Clients Analysis - Rank organizations by lobbying activity
✅ Bill Lobbying Analysis - See who's lobbying on specific bills
✅ Latin-1 encoding support for Canadian government CSV data

Phase 4: Petitions System (November 2025)

✅ Petition Search - 341+ active petitions with keyword search
✅ Government Response Tracking - Full petition text and official responses
✅ Client-side filtering for comprehensive search

Phase 3: MP Expenditures (November 2025)

✅ Quarterly Expense Data - Salaries, travel, hospitality, contracts
✅ Top Spenders Analysis - Rank MPs by spending category
✅ Party Spending Averages - Compare party spending patterns

Phase 2: Enhanced Parliamentary Tools (November 2025)

✅ Postal Code to MP Lookup - #1 most requested citizen feature
✅ Party Discipline Analysis - Identify MPs voting against party line
✅ Committee Data Access - List committees, get meeting details
✅ Temporal Filtering - Date ranges for votes and debates

Phase 1: Foundational Features (November 2025)

✅ Politician search by name
✅ Voting history and participation analysis
✅ Full Hansard sitting transcripts
✅ Enhanced debate/MP/vote listings

Total Growth: From initial 14 tools to 42 tools (+200%) with full government accountability coverage.

🎓 For Developers

Testing Client Usage

import os
from fedmcp import (
    OpenParliamentClient,
    LegisInfoClient,
    OurCommonsHansardClient,
    CanLIIClient,
    MPExpenditureClient,
    PetitionsClient,
    LobbyingRegistryClient
)

# OpenParliament - pagination is automatic
op = OpenParliamentClient()
for debate in op.list_debates(limit=10):
    print(debate)

# LEGISinfo - session format is "parliament-session"
legis = LegisInfoClient()
bill = legis.get_bill("44-1", "c-11")

# MP Expenditures - fiscal year format
exp = MPExpenditureClient()
expenses = exp.get_top_spenders("travel", fiscal_year=2026, quarter=1, limit=10)

# Petitions - search with client-side filtering
petitions = PetitionsClient()
results = petitions.search_petitions(keyword="climate", category="All", limit=10)

# Lobbying - downloads and caches data on first use
lobbying = LobbyingRegistryClient(auto_update=True)
registrations = lobbying.search_registrations(
    client_name="Microsoft",
    active_only=True,
    limit=10
)

# CanLII - requires API key
canlii = CanLIIClient(api_key=os.getenv("CANLII_API_KEY"))
cases = canlii.search_cases_by_keyword("csc-scc", "charter rights", limit=10)

Running Tests

# Install with development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

Adding New Tools

Define tool schema in list_tools() in server.py
Implement handler in call_tool() function
Return results as TextContent objects
Handle errors with try/except blocks
Update documentation in CLAUDE.md

⚠️ Important Notes

Data Freshness

OpenParliament: Real-time API (updated continuously)
Hansard: Published daily after sittings
LEGISinfo: Updated as bills progress through Parliament
MP Expenditures: Published quarterly (90 days after quarter end)
Petitions: Real-time API
Lobbying Registry: Updated monthly (cached locally for 7 days)
CanLII: Updated daily with new case law

Rate Limits

OpenParliament: 10 req/sec (conservative, API allows more)
CanLII: 2 req/sec, 5,000 queries/day (enforced by API key)
All others: No rate limiting required (static data or tolerant APIs)

Data Limitations & Caveats

MP Expenditure Data:

Historical Limit: Data only available from July 2020 (FY 2020-2021 Q2) onward
Missing Quarter: FY 2020-2021 Q1 (Apr-Jun 2020) returns server errors - not available
Pre-2020 Data: Not available through current proactive disclosure system (likely different format/archived)
Total Coverage: ~4.5 years of expense data vs. 20+ year MP careers

Travel Expense Reporting Nuances:

Party leader travel may be funded through:
- Party budgets (not individual MP office budgets)
- Research office allocations
- Parliamentary precinct allowances
MPs with ridings near Ottawa (e.g., Carleton, Ottawa-area) naturally have lower travel expenses
COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) significantly reduced all travel expenses
$0 travel expenses do NOT necessarily indicate no travel occurred - check expense category definitions