So in Canada, there’s no requirement that the MP for a riding actually be *from *the riding in any way?
That’s correct. There’s no residency requirement. It’s left to the voters to decide if a candidate who doesn’t live in the riding should be elected to represent it. Same principle applies in provincial and territorial elections.
We seem to have thoroughly answered the question of what these words mean. I suspect the OP is interested in etymology also, given that he asks whether the words are related. Anyone know about that?
I suspect “byes” in cricket (runs awarded when the batsman doesn’t hit, but the keeper (think “catcher”) doesn’t stop the ball) would also be related.
According to my Random House Unabridged, “bye” comes from a variant spelling of “by” in its noun use. The noun-use definition for “by” is “bye”. Basically, “by” and “bye” are the same word, but the “bye” spelling is more common when it’s used as a noun.
The same dictionary says that the “by” in “by-election” is the word by, presumably as an adjective, which would have it meaning something like “secondary, incidental”.
So the two are definitely related.
No. You just have to be a qualified elector (Canadian citizen 18 years old or older on polling day – there have been 17-year-old candidates before who turn 18 during the campaign) and fulfil the various other obligations of a candidate.
As an example, William Lyon Mackenzie King served at different times as MP for Waterloo North, ON; Prince, PEI; York North, ON; Prince Albert, SK; and Glengarry, ON.