SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND MORT ALITY OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT IN QUEBEC IN THE 19TH-CENTURY AND 20TH-CENTURY - A COHORT ANALYSIS

Members of Parliament in Quebec are a select group of the population, and it would be expected that their mortality will be lower than that of the population as a whole. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing 1 455 individuals born after 1800 who were elected to the legislature in Lower Canada, United Canada, and Quebec between the beginning of the nineteenth century and 1992. MPs in Quebec differ from the general con temporary population: they are better-educated and the proportion work ing in the liberal profession is high. But there is no statistically s ignificant difference in the proportions surviving to different ages. Indeed, the mortality of older members of parliament is higher than th at of the older age groups in the general population. It is possible t hat their life styles more than compensate for the effects of selectio n? This subject deserves a fuller investigation.