What is the test for a shared parenting arrangement?

A proper analysis is not guided by any legal presumption in favour of the custodial parent, although that parent’s view is entitled to great respect: Gordon v. Goertz, 1996 CanLII 191 (SCC), [1996] 2 S.C.R. 27, 134 D.L.R. (4th) 321. In the court below, counsel argued at length as to whether the parenting regime was more accurately characterized as a “shared parenting” arrangement, or one where the appellant was the “primary caregiver” and the respondent as the “access parent.” With respect, labels such as these can be misleading. What is significant is not the label but the fact that both parents are actively involved in the daily lives of their children. No doubt the children spend more hours per week with their mother than they do with their father, but it cannot be said that the respondent is in any way a remote, indifferent or absentee parent, as is sometimes the case with parents who see their children only a few times per month.