About Openparliament Ca
Openparliament Ca is an MCP server for Canadian parliamentary records, intended for researchers and civic-tech users. It covers debates, bills, votes, MPs, committees, and meetings through a community-maintained REST data source.
Key features
- 01Search Hansard debates
- 02Browse bills and bill details
- 03List recorded House votes
- 04Find current and historic MPs
- 05Browse committees and meetings
Use cases
- 01Search debate contributions by topic or politician
- 02Review a bill's details and status
- 03Check House voting records
- 04Find MP profiles or committee meetings
MCP support
Provides tools for Canadian parliamentary data to MCP clients through the Pipeworx gateway or a local stdio server. The hosted endpoint also lists shared Pipeworx meta-tools.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http pipeworx-io-openparliament-ca https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-openparliament-ca":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"pipeworx-io-openparliament-ca":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-openparliament-ca":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-openparliament-ca":{"serverUrl":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
Details
From the project README@pipeworx/openparliament-ca
OpenParliament.ca MCP — civic-tech mirror of the Parliament of Canada. House of Commons debates (Hansard), bills, votes, MPs, committee meetings. No auth.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1683+ live data sources.
Note: this is a community-maintained project (Michael Mulley et al.) — not the official Library of Parliament APIs (which are XML-only and awkward). OpenParliament.ca ingests and republishes the data with a clean REST surface.
Tools
search_debates(query, date_from?, date_to?, politician?, party?, limit?, offset?)— Hansard contributionslist_bills(session?, sponsor?, status?, limit?, offset?)— Parliament billsget_bill(session, number)— bill detaillist_votes(session?, limit?, offset?)— recorded votes in the Houselist_politicians(current?, party?, province?, name?, limit?, offset?)— current + historic MPsget_politician(slug)— MP profilelist_committees(session?, limit?, offset?)— House committeeslist_committee_meetings(committee_slug?, date_from?, date_to?, limit?)— meetings
Data source
https://api.openparliament.ca/ — JSON via Accept: application/json or ?format=json.
Quick Start
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"openparliament-ca": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp"
}
}
}
What this endpoint actually serves
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openparliament-ca/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1683+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
No MCP client? Call it over HTTP
curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_debates \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"politician":"justin-trudeau","limit":10}'
No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_debates. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.
Standalone (no gateway account)
This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:
{
"mcpServers": {
"openparliament-ca": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-openparliament-ca"]
}
}
}
Or run it directly to confirm it starts:
npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-openparliament-ca
It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call
for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway
connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.
Using with ask_pipeworx
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Openparliament Ca data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
More
License
MIT
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.