Direct democracy is the practice of asking citizens to vote directly on topics like moral questions or questions like separation from a country.  The practice is regular if those ballot questions happen with many elections, instead of very irregularly on the issues most dividing citizens. Canada is currently a representative democracy, where elected politicians vote on issues for citizens most of the time.

In countries with political parties, they often require party members (like Conservative, Liberals or the NDP in Canada's House of Commons) to vote as the party wants, instead of what local voters who elected them might want.  Free votes are rare, and typically on moral issues (i.e. Abortion, Medical Assistance in Dying)