User:Montrealais/Canada House standings/row/doc

Usage

This template produces a row for use in the new User:Montrealais/Canada House standings format, with parameters allowing entries to be added easily whenever the composition of the Canadian House of Commons changes. This template is not intended to be used alone, but only in conjunction with User:Montrealais/Canada House standings.

The utility of this template is that within the house standings table, new entries can easily be added without having to disrupt existing ones. Formerly, each time you added a new event, you had to modify the colspan= parameter for all parties not involved in the change, so that the blank space below their most recent standing count would continue. This template eliminates the need for this: when adding a new event, a border is added on the top edge of the cell containing the changed figure, automatically replicating the previous effect with far less confusion and possibility of error.

Guide to template parameters

Parameter	Notes
no=	(Compulsory) Number indicating the order of the event. This is used solely for editor's reference and to produce the alternating row colours that make the table easier to read; odd numbers use white, even numbers use whitesmoke. If you don't want to use ordinal numbers, just alternate 0 and 1. In the case of a by-election in multiple ridings, mass floor-crossings, or other situation where a change affects several MPs at once, you can give each row the same ordinal number; this way, the rows will have the same background and will be visually grouped together. If you do this, you can also put the date and the new party standings in the first row only.
year=	The year of the event. The template places this in the Date column, in bold italics followed by a carriage return, so as to place it above the month and day. It can also be used on its own (e.g. for an end-of-year or beginning-of-year row).
date=	Date of the event. Appears in boldface in the Date column.
gainparty= and loseparty=	Indicate which parties gained or lost an MP. Can be used in different combinations: e.g. use gainparty= alone for by-election victories, loseparty= alone for resignations or deaths, both together for floor-crossers, and neither when creating other kinds of rows (e.g. results of a general election). gainparty= determines the party colour used in the bar just before the MP's name. Remember, this shows the colour of the party gaining an MP; e.g. if an MP defects from the Conservatives to the Liberals, the bar would be red; if an MP quits caucus, the bar would be grey for independent, etc. If no gainparty= parameter is specified, no colour is used. The loseparty= parameter is included in the parentheses after the name of the MP and their riding. If no loseparty= parameter is provided, gainparty= is used there instead. In addition to the parameters listed in Wikipedia:WikiProject Political parties and politicians in Canada/list of parties, the abbreviations CPC, Lib, Ind, and IndCon will be understood.
mp=	Name of the MP involved. Appears as a wikilink in the Events column, followed by the MP's riding name and initial party affiliation. If the MP's article contains parentheses, remember that pipes must be replaced with {{!}}, thus: Candice Bergen (politician){{!}}Candice Bergen to give Candice Bergen.
riding=	Name of the riding involved. Appears as a wikilink in the Events column in parentheses after the MP's name. If the riding article contains parentheses, remember that pipes must be replaced with {{!}}, thus: Victoria (electoral district){{!}}Victoria to give Victoria.
event=	Text that is placed after the name, riding, and party of the MP involved; or, if these are not specified, instead of them. e.g. "deceased", "sits as an independent," "joins the Liberal caucus," etc. If the text includes wikilinks, remember that brackets must be used and any pipes must be replaced with {{!}}, thus: [[Death and state funeral of Jack Layton{{!}}deceased]] to give deceased.
CPC= NDP= Lib= BQ= Green= Ind= IndCon= total= vacancies= majority=	Used for the numbers indicating the changes to party standings resulting from the change listed in the row. If a given column has an entry in the parameter corresponding to it, that cell will have a top border, so that each figure's cell appears to continue down the table until it is replaced. total= indicates the total number of MPs sitting (total seats minus vacancies; would change in case of a death, resignation, or by-election); vacancies= is the number of vacant seats; and majority= is the number of seats by which the government party's seat total exceeds the total number of all other MPs (would change in case of death, resignation, by-election, or MPs leaving or entering the government caucus; note that an MP leaving the government caucus causes the majority to decrease by 2, because the government is losing an MP and the opposition is gaining one).