Browsing by Author "Stewart, David"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    A Comparative Analysis of Political Finance Regulation in the Maritime Provinces
    (2016) Johnson, Anna Elizabeth; Stewart, David; Sayers, Anthony; Thomas, Melanee
    Money is crucial to the functioning of democracy and is often used as a tool to influence the political process. However, concerns about real or perceived corruption has led many jurisdictions to regulate political finances. Politics in the Maritime Provinces have long been notorious for corrupt practices. Yet, political finance regimes have existed in these provinces for several decades. Using historical and political contexts and three benchmarks for political finance regulation—equality of opportunity for political actors, equality of opportunity for private actors, and mitigation of corruption—the effectiveness of the regimes in the Maritime provinces is assessed. Differing experiences with internal and external pressures for reform have led to varying results. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, internal pressures due to shifting attitudes toward equality led to more comprehensive and effective regimes than that of PEI, which was spurred by external forces through a contagion effect.
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    A matter of quality?: candidates in Canadian consituency elections
    (2010) Coletto, David; Young, Lisa; Stewart, David
    Most students of Canadian elections emphasize the role of national campaigns in deciding the outcome of these elections. I challenge this orthodoxy as incomplete and argue that we need to pay more attention to who runs for Parliament. Without studying what happens in the constituencies and among the individuals who seek to become parliamentarians, we cannot fully understand the process of Canadian electoral politics. For that reason, I shine some light on the hundreds of individuals who run for Canada's Parliament during each general election. In doing so, I seek to identify the ways in which candidates might matter in Canada and then test a number of hypotheses related to their effect on Canadian elections. This study is the first empirical examination of the role candidates play in Canadian elections. I classify candidates as being either quality or non-quality based on their previous political experience and occupation. The American political science literature suggests that quality candidates are better candidates. They raise and spend more money; they attract more volunteers; and, they are more likely to win their elections. Testing this American concept on the 2004, 2006, and 2008 Canadian General Elections, I find that American findings hold true in Canada. Quality candidates, in contrast to non-quality candidates, are more strategic and nm when conditions are favourable. They also raise more money and perform better on Election Day, all else being equal.
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    Data and Targeting in Canadian Politics: Are Provincial Parties Taking Advantage of the Latest Political Technology?
    (2017-12-18) Carlile, Christopher; Sayers, Anthony; Stewart, David; Thomas, Melanie
    Recent decades have seen dramatic advances in information and communication technology, allowing political campaigns to refine data and target voters in unprecedented ways. However, many of the most sophisticated targeting techniques are absent from Canadian politics. This thesis asks: to what extent are Canadian provincial political parties using advanced database assisted targeting and analytics, and what factors may be affecting their ability to do so? To answer this question, this thesis first determines the most advanced capabilities of data and targeting in political campaigns by analysing the most sophisticated example seen to date: the 2012 Obama for America Presidential Campaign. This thesis then interviews personnel from four different Canadian provincial political parties: The BC Liberal Party, the Alberta New Democratic Party, the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, and the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. These case study interviews explore the extent of Canadian parties’ database and targeting operations, as well as what factors may be stopping them from using data driven targeting to its fullest extent. These interviews show that the two major factors inhibiting advanced data driven targeting campaigns in Canada are a lack of sufficient data due to privacy law, and the small scale of single member plurality election campaigns. The most significant finding is that Canadian privacy law prohibits companies from selling private data necessary to create the databases that fuel the most advanced targeting techniques. Therefore, as long as Canadian privacy law remains this way, it is unlikely that Canadian politics will see the most advanced database assisted targeting and analytics in campaigns.
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    (De) Securitizing the Arctic? Functional actors and the shaping of Canadian Arctic security policy.
    (2022-12-12) Dean, Ryan; Huebert, Rob; Sayers, Anthony; Stewart, David; Chastko, Paul; Pincus, Rebecca
    This dissertation examines the development of modern Arctic security policy. It is a longitudinal investigation that begins in 1985 when Canada had an Arctic policy of “ad hocery” and ends in 2010 with the completion of an integrated policy. It investigates how the threat perceptions and policy prescriptions of various domestic actors were transmitted into government policy, moving some conceptualizations of security up or to the top of the agenda whilst moving others down or off of it. Second generation securitization theory is systematically applied to a series of exceptional case studies that best track the change over time in Arctic security policy. A mixed methodology of process tracing and discourse analysis interrogate the creation and changing of context, and how context was critical in setting the conditions for shaping policy. The dissertation finds that context matters in the securitization process, largely being created by securitization theory’s undertheorized functional actor. These actors provide policy options for those with political power to securitize into government policy. The prescriptions these actors offered were increasingly complex, stretching across the breadth and depth of security over time. This dissertation tells a story that comes full circle, beginning and ending with Canada’s effort to fold the military into its developing Arctic security policy.
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    The Evolution of Candidate Vetting in the Liberal Party of Canada 1993-2015
    (2023-03) Thorkelson, Ruth; Stewart, David; Thomas, Melanee; Brodie, Ian
    Candidate selection for political parties in Canada plays a critical role in the democratic process. As part of candidate selection, most parties require candidates for nomination to go through a vetting exercise. This exercise is little known, however, and has not been widely reviewed in academic literature. Using a series of interviews with senior Liberal Party of Canada campaign personnel, this thesis will review the vetting exercise for candidates of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1993 to 2015. This thesis considers the evolution of candidate review, or “green lighting,” within the context of theories of party organization in Canada. It argues that the green lighting process has contributed to the weakening of a dynamic interplay between areas of authority at the local level that has provided equilibrium against the power of the leader within Canadian political parties. It argues that the stratarchical imperative within the franchise model of party organization in Canada that had provided the capacity for local autonomy as exercised uniquely and individually by constituencies is diminished by the entrenchment of the green lighting process. As a result, the green lighting exercise has contributed to the continuing centralization of power of the leader. As arguably the only brokerage political party in Canada, the candidate selection process of the Liberal Party of Canada is important, given how often it forms government, and how many Liberal Members of Parliament may be elected during each election. The vetting process across parties in general also directly affects representation in Parliament and in government.
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    The King Can Do No Wrong: The Expulsion of the Douglasites, Intra-Party Conflict Resolution, and Dominant Party Ideological Moderation
    (2022-04-18) Tot, Brian Istvan; Sayers, Anthony Michael; Stewart, David
    In 1947-1948, Premier of Alberta, Ernest Manning, expelled the rabidly anti-Semitic sect of his caucus and Government known as the Douglasites. In this purge, Manning would end up expelling numerous members of his caucus, Party (the Alberta Social Credit League), and Government, paving the way for a drastic shift in espoused socio-political rhetoric and ideology from the Party away from the anti-Semitic. Although Social Credit’s anti-Semitic roots run deep, it is the case that Premier Manning was the primary catalysing actor that set the de-facto natural law of the Party from his ascension to the premiership. When Manning said that he “condemned, repudiated, and completely dissociated” himself from the group, whether his intentions were actually grounded in his moral framework – as is hinted towards by the author – or were instead a measure of his political acumen, may perhaps only have been known by the premier himself. But, what is strongly evidence is the fact that Manning played a primary role in this dramatic shift. Without Ernest Manning, this movement ideologically was not necessarily a given, and rather, what the historical record implies is that Manning in many ways served as the primary catalyst and driving factor in this shift. My thesis considers this course of events, their socio-political implications, and grounds itself theoretically in an application of Orbell and Fougere’s intra-party conflict resolution model for understanding the dominant party ideological moderation/decay.
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    The Statesmanship of Sir John A. Macdonald and Louis Riel
    (2016) Anderson, Timothy; Flanagan, Thomas; Sayers, Anthony; Stewart, David; Knopff, Rainer; Cooper, Barry; Smith, Travis
    How might we better understand the Canadian regime? This inquiry provides a review of a moment in Canadian political history and its statesmen that stands as an example of the practice that shaped Canadian nationhood. Sir John A. Macdonald and Louis Riel were the only “Fathers of Confederation” to meet in pitched battle. Their conflicts between 1869 and 1885 shaped two separate and core elements of the Canadian regime: English-French and East-West tensions. Through a lens of statesmanship, this inquiry analyzes the thoughts and actions of these two men. Macdonald, eastern and English, may be understood as a transactional statesman. In brief, this means he practiced a politics of negotiation, compromise, and dedication to classical liberal principles. Riel, western and French, can be read as a transformational statesman. This is a politics of profound idealism, of discomfort with this world, and of an identification of oneself with one’s cause. The inquiry examines these Fathers, their interactions, and the outcomes of their clash of statesmanship. It shows that their statesmanship represents a fresh way for us to might understand the English-French and East-West dynamics in Canada. Further, it demonstrates that ideas and statesmanship are critical to understanding the Canadian regime.