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Political leaders are the public face of a party during an election campaign. But what type of work is conducted behind the scenes by lesser-known party members attempting to propel their leaders to victory at the federal level in Canada? Inside the Campaign is a behind-the-scenes look at the people involved in an election campaign and the work they do. Each chapter reveals how campaign staffers, as well as by those covering and organizing election-related events, perform their duties and overcome obstacles during the heat of a campaign to get their respective leaders elected. Practitioners and political scientists collaborate to present real-world insights that demystify over a dozen occupations, including campaign chairs, fundraisers, advertisers, platform designers, communication personnel, election administrators, political staff, journalists, and pollsters. Inside the Campaign provides an inside look at, and unparalleled understanding of, the nuts and bolts of running a federal campaign in Canada.
Canadians often see politicians as little more than trained seals who vote on command and repeat robotic talking points. Politicians are torn by dilemmas of loyalty to party versus loyalty to voters. Whipped examines the hidden ways that political parties exert control over elected members of Canadian legislatures. Drawing on extensive interviews with politicians and staffers across the country, award-winning author Alex Marland explains why Members of Parliament and provincial legislators toe the party line, and shows how party discipline has expanded into message discipline. He recounts stories from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s drive for caucus cohesion in the 1980s through to the turmoil that the SNC-Lavalin crisis wrought on Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party in 2019. From caucus meetings to vote instructions, this book exposes how democracy works in our age of instant communication and political polarization. Filled with political tips, Whipped is a must-read for anyone interested in the real world of Canadian politics.
Inside the Local Campaign reveals what goes on in constituency campaigns during a Canadian election. For decades, the media has focused primarily on the national campaign and party leaders, and the practice of canvassing for votes by candidates and their supporters has been seen as more tradition than science. But things have evolved with digital media. Local-level campaigning is more fashionable – and critical for gathering data that can be used post-election. Using the 2021 federal campaign as an anchor, an impressive collection of authors and practitioners discusses local-level campaigning in electoral districts across the country, highlights local trends and on-the-ground roles, and discloses hidden details about how local campaigns are run.
Open Federalism Revisited provides a systematic, encompassing assessment of Canadian federalism in the Harper era, offering a fresh perspective in federalism scholarship.
Ontario is the most populous province in Canada and perhaps the most complex. It encompasses a range of regions, cities, and local cultures, while also claiming a long-standing pre-eminence in Canadian federalism. The second edition of The Politics of Ontario aims to understand this unique and ever-changing province. The new edition captures the growing diversity of Ontario, with new chapters on race and Ontario politics, Black Ontarians, and the relationship of Indigenous Peoples and Ontario. With contributors from across the province, the book analyses the political institutions of Ontario, key areas such as gender, Northern Ontario, the intricate Ontario political economy, and public policy challenges with the environment, labour relations, governing the GTA, and health care. Completely refreshed from the earlier edition, it emphasizes the evolution of Ontario and key public policy challenges facing the province. In doing so, The Politics of Ontario provides readers with a thorough understanding of this complicated province.
This book considers the impact that the increasing number of LGBQ politicians in Canada has had on the political representation of LGBTQ people and communities. Based on analysis of parliamentary speeches and interviews with 28 out LGBQ parliamentarians in Canada between 2017 and 2020, Tremblay shows how out LGBQ MLAs and MPs take advantage of their intermediary position between the LGBTQ movement and the state to represent LGBTQ people and communities. For example, the politicians in this study introduce pro-LGBTQ bills, lobby cabinet ministers, act as a bridge between LGBTQ groups and the civil service, and give talks in schools about their identities. Most importantly, they act as role models for LGBTQ people (particularly children and teens) and contribute to lifting the social stigma around sexuality and gender identity. This latest volume in our Sustainable Development Goals series underlines that SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) can only be accomplished with political representation for the LGBTQ community and minority groups in general.
The fifth edition of Canadian Parties in Transition continues and enriches the work of earlier editions in bringing together a highly respected group of scholars to offer a comprehensive account of the development of party politics in Canada. The book addresses the origin and the evolution of the Canadian party system and discusses how that system has been impacted by regionalism, brokerage politics, and political marketing. It focuses on the competing ideological currents that occupy the political stage while also paying attention to the role of third parties in federal politics. Contributors address the representation and democracy through an exploration of voting systems, direct democracy...
Opening the Government of Canada presents a compelling case for the importance of a more open model of governance in the digital age – but a model that also continues to uphold democratic principles at the heart of the Westminster system. Drawing on interviews with public officials and extensive analysis of government documents and social media accounts, Clarke details the untold story of the Canadian federal bureaucracy’s efforts to adapt to new digital pressures from the mid-2000s onward. This book argues that the bureaucracy’s tradition of closed government, fuelled by today’s antagonistic political communications culture, is at odds with evolving citizen expectations and new digital policy tools, including social media, crowdsourcing, and open data. Striking a balance between reform and tradition, Opening the Government of Canada concludes with a series of pragmatic recommendations that lay out a roadmap for building a democratically robust, digital-era federal government.
Absent Mandate develops the crucial concept of policy mandates, distinguished from other interpretations of election outcomes, and addresses the disconnect between election issues and government actions. Emphasizing Canadian federal elections between 1993 and 2015, the book examines the Chretien/Martin, Harper and Trudeau governments and the campaigns that brought them to power. Using data from the Canadian Election Studies and other major surveys, Absent Mandate documents the longstanding volatility in Canadian voting behaviour. This volatility reflects the flexibility of voters' partisan attachments, the salience of party leader images, and campaigns dominated by discussion of broad national problems and leaders rather than by coherent sets of policy proposals. The failure of elections to provide genuine policy mandates stimulates public discontent with the political process and widens the gap between the promise and the performance of Canadian democracy.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of populism on the European democratic polity. In the last two decades, European democracies have come under strain amid growing populism. By asserting the superiority of the majority over the law, of direct democracy over representation, and claiming the necessity to defend national sovereignty against foreign interferences, the populist conception of democracy is in stark contrast with the longstanding Western notion of liberal democracy. This volume investigates populist attempts to radically change what Bobbio called the “rules of the game” of democracy from an eminently legal perspective. Weaving together normative and empiri...