The police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black American, prompted massive protests across the USA and around the globe in the spring and summer of 2020. Like those south of their border, Canadian protesters gathered to bring renewed attention to a longstanding problem: systemic racism and police impunity. While race and dissatisfaction with the police have received a great deal of attention in popular media, surprisingly little political science research considers the relationship between race, attitudes towards the police and protest. Do attitudes towards police differ across racial groups in Canada? Are attitudes towards the police related to protest activity? We answer these questions using data from Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey (GSS) Cycle 34, GSS Cycle 35 and Statistics Canada’s Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians’ Experiences of Discrimination. We find that Black and Indigenous Canadians express the lowest confidence in police relative to other People of Colour (POC) and compared with White Canadians. We also find more confidence in the police is associated with lower probability of protest (in general).

Which Canadian Members of Parliament (MPs) are on Bluesky and what types of content do they share? Taking up calls for more mere description of how emerging social media platforms are used in their initial period of operation, this research note describes how many MPs are using Bluesky and what types of content they share. Of the 123 MPs already on Bluesky, we find that they apply the same logic and understanding of platform affordances from Twitter (now X), with posts most frequently discussing policy, the Ottawa bubble and their constituency. This research note contributes to our understanding of how MPs use Bluesky to communicate with the public in a high-choice media environment.

Despite extensive literature on political participation, little is known about the role of motivational psychology. This study examines whether Locus of Hope (LoH), a personality characteristic that captures individual differences in strategies for goal attainment, is a predictor of political engagement. LoH theory considers both individual variations on self-assessed efficacy for goal attainment (high versus low efficacy) and whether efficacy is characterized by an internal (self-actualized) or external (inter-reliant) sense of agency. Using a novel measure of political goals, we examine the relationship between LoH and political engagement with a demographically representative sample of 784 Canadians. LoH and goal attainment were found to predict political engagement over and above measures of political efficacy and interest. The findings open new avenues of research that can help us better understand why and how some people engage in politics.

Comparative research documents substantial education- and income-based class gaps in parent spending on children’s education, with important repercussions for the perpetuation of intergenerational (dis)advantage. Spurred by higher levels of income inequality and associated economic transformations, some speculate these gaps may have widened, as parents feel intensified pressure to best position their children in increasingly competitive labour markets. We examine the size and evolution—over time and in response to higher inequality—of these class gaps in the Canadian provinces, a context where we propose competitive pressures may be muted by the country’s relatively unstratified post-secondary education system. Exploiting provincial and temporal variation in Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending (2006–2019), we show that more highly educated parents, and to a lesser extent high-income ones, place distinct emphasis on education spending. However, we find limited evidence of changes in these spending patterns in response to income inequality or over time.

Longstanding public support for the Supreme Court of Canada is well-documented and contributes to its public legitimacy. However, the sources of this support and how vulnerable it may be to political factors or negative coverage of events are not well understood. In February of 2023, Justice Russell Brown took a leave of absence from the Supreme Court following a conduct complaint under review by the Canadian Judicial Council. Justice Brown retired from the bench in June of that year, before the CJC concluded its investigation. In the intervening period, media coverage of the events that prompted the attention from the CJC thrust the Court into the spotlight. Using data from an original two-wave survey experiment (n = 1,222) from May and November of 2023, we investigate whether perspectives toward the circumstances surrounding Brown’s retirement hurt perceptions of the Court’s legitimacy. We find that the event did not disrupt support for the Court over time but also point to the ways in which opinion toward the Court changed pre- and post-resignation. These findings suggest that support toward Canada’s high court is at present largely stable even in the case of negative coverage of a high-profile event. However, we also acknowledge the potential vulnerabilities that negative coverage of the Court may present.

For more than 150 years, politicians, the federal government, and missionary churches misled Canadians about deaths, abuse, and the genocidal intent in residential schools for Indigenous children. More recently, the identification of suspected unmarked graves at former school sites has triggered a renewed spread of misinformation denying the harmful legacy of residential schools. To what extent does the Canadian public endorse residential school denialism? Can education counter this misinformation? In this study, we develop and test a scale for measuring residential school denialism. We find that nearly one in five non-Indigenous Canadians agree with denialist claims, while an equal share feel they do not know enough to offer an opinion. Denialist beliefs are more common among men, conservatives, those with anti-Indigenous attitudes, and white Canadians who strongly identify with their racial in-group. In an experiment, we also show that educational information reduces non-opinions and increases the likelihood of rejecting denialist arguments.

Depuis plus d’une décennie, le Mali est confronté à une crise sécuritaire complexe ayant conduit au déploiement de plusieurs missions internationales de paix, dont la Minusma. Si cette dernière avait pour objectif de soutenir la stabilisation du pays, elle a progressivement fait l’objet de critiques croissantes au sein de la population.

Cet article propose d’analyser les attentes des Maliens à l’égard de la Minusma et d’examiner comment leurs perceptions ont influencé son acceptabilité ainsi que l’évaluation de son efficacité. En mobilisant l’approche de l’évaluation qualitative des politiques publiques, l’étude considère cette mission comme une politique publique internationale de paix. L’analyse repose sur une enquête qualitative réalisée à Bamako en 2020 et 2021. Elle révèle un décalage entre les attentes locales et le cadre de référence de la mission ainsi que l’importance de la légitimité locale dans la conduite, voire la poursuite, des opérations de paix.

Between 1980 and 2020, more than 120 countries—Canada included—enfranchised emigrants. While the diffusion of democratic practices is a well-established international phenomenon, we know little about the domestic process. How does international policy diffusion influence domestic debate? To explain the structure of Canadian debate about emigrant voting rights, we draw on concepts from the constructivist literature on international norms. In examining the structure of normative discourse within a domestic context, we argue that emulation involves three rhetorical elements that can generate disagreement: (1) setting peer countries to emulate; (2) identifying existing policy positions; and (3) envisioning the preferred policy position vis-à-vis peers. We find that in the Canadian debate about emigrant voting, contestation increased over time; where only peer groups were contested in the early debates leading up to the initial 1993 enfranchisement, all three elements were contested when discussing the removal of temporal restrictions two decades later.

Le fonctionnement normal des municipalités associe trois pôles : le conseil municipal, le maire ou la mairesse, et l’administration. Pourtant, dans quinze villes québécoises, on trouve également un comité exécutif, souvent présenté comme l’équivalent local d’un conseil des ministres. Rarement analysé, sa présence interroge pourtant la politisation des institutions municipales, conçue ici en référence avec la place croissante des partis politiques ainsi que la prise en main du processus décisionnel par les élus et les élues. À partir d’une analyse institutionnelle et documentaire, l’article montre que le comité exécutif participe à la politisation des institutions municipales de trois façons. Lieu de l’action municipale efficace, il est aussi celui du jeu politique et partisan sous l’autorité mayorale, ainsi que celui de la professionnalisation politique. Sa présence sur la scène médiatique défie également l’étiquette apolitique traditionnellement attribuée aux municipalités. En outre, il illustre une certaine hétérogénéité dans le fonctionnement des municipalités québécoises, qui tiennt compte des différentes réalités politico-territoriales par-delà des modèles institutionnels relativement semblables.

This study examines the absence and presence of race- and anti-Black-related issues in Canadian political science. This research employs a six-pronged mixed methods approach, combining quantitative data analysis with qualitative examinations of race debates within the discipline. It investigates introductory textbooks, Black Studies programs, graduate courses, comprehensive examination reading lists, the Canadian Journal of Political Science and academic awards. The findings reveal that Canadianists are not exempt from the effects of racism. The results highlight significant challenges in decolonizing Canadian political science, such as incorporating race into university curriculum and providing diversity training for editorial committees at major academic presses. This study underscores the pervasive reach of racism and anti-Blackness in the country and calls for adopting relational approaches to studying Black people in Canada. It contributes to the growing discourse on anti-Blackness, addressing crucial gaps in the discipline.

L’usage du français au Québec est en recul (Commissaire à la langue française, 2024a; Statistique Canada, 2022), contribuant à la perception que la langue française est menacée. Cette situation soulève plusieurs questions quant à l’évolution temporelle de l’opinion publique relativement à cette perception et ses conséquences politiques. Dans cet article, nous examinons d’abord l’évolution de l’opinion publique concernant la perception selon laquelle la langue française serait menacée afin de quantifier les changements survenus entre 1993 et 2024. Ensuite, nous analysons les déterminants de ce sentiment de menace. Enfin, nous examinons les conséquences électorales en politique fédérale. Les résultats illustrent (1) qu’une forte majorité des citoyens estime que le français est menacé, (2) cette proportion a nettement augmenté à travers le temps et (3) ce sentiment est lié au choix électoral. Ces conclusions suggèrent que les enjeux linguistiques constituent un facteur crucial pour mieux saisir la politique québécoise et canadienne.

How do perceptions of demographic change affect the strength of white identity and corresponding attitudes toward immigrants, immigration and personal perceptions of victimhood? While white identity has received scholarly attention in the United States, we know much less about its effects in Canada. We conducted a preregistered survey experiment in which we exposed respondents to different framings on Canada’s increasing ethnic diversity. We find that perceiving demographic change increases feelings of white identity, particularly when framed as an increase in Canada’s visible minority or immigrant population. However, exposure to these trends does not in turn robustly affect respondents’ attitudes toward immigrants, immigration admission preferences or own perceptions of personal victimhood. These findings suggest that white identity is both present and can be primed in Canada; however, it has not yet been politically mobilized in the same way as in other contexts, such as the United States.

Despite extensive research on issue engagement, much remains to be learned. This article advances our understanding of issue competition in three ways. First, it examines whether political parties focus on the same issues in a setting with high electoral volatility, studying four Quebec elections from 2012 to 2022. Second, it assesses whether this trend is evident in both press releases and tweets. Third, it investigates why parties converge on the same issues. Findings reveal convergence levels in Quebec match other democracies and remain consistent across platforms. Ideologically similar parties are more likely to address the same issues. Two issue types are identified: peripheral, less visible issues and governance issues, consistently highlighted by all parties within a jurisdiction, reflecting a stable electoral agenda. These findings align with growing evidence that engagement dominates issue competition while demonstrating that convergence and divergence can occur around few key issues that remain relatively stable over time.

Canadian politics is shaped by three intersecting areas of constitutional law: Aboriginal rights, federalism and Charter jurisprudence. While a canon has emerged on the role of courts in Canadian democracy, it is often asserted that Charter scholarship dominates the field. Is this true—and does it matter? We address these questions through a systematic survey of 423 studies published between 2012 and 2022 in leading Canadian journals, books and edited volumes. We find that most work is produced by legal scholars, is descriptive, focuses on the Charter and examines a narrow range of cases and themes—most notably the court’s relationship with other institutions, its legitimacy and its power of judicial review. We argue that advancing our understanding of courts in Canadian democracy requires moving beyond our tendency to stick to our lanes—engaging core theories of judicial politics, employing explanatory methods and analyzing multiple areas of constitutional law.

In 2022, an anti-vaccine mandate protest in Canada received millions of dollars in support through online crowdfunding. This event catalyzed political crowdfunding in Canada by demonstrating its ability to disseminate ideological discourse and mobilize collective action. Given its newfound visibility and impact, this study examines the landscape of political crowdfunding in Canada. We examined 60 campaigns from the legal, current events and political categories on the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo and classified campaigns into: COVID-19-related topics, alternative media and free speech, climate change skepticism, and other political campaigns. Thematic analysis of the interactive discourse between campaign hosts and donors revealed that many campaigns were motivated by defending individual rights and freedoms amidst perceived government overreach, which fuels a distrust towards authority, including the government and mainstream media. Our study suggests that political crowdfunding empowers individuals to symbolically reflect their political and ideological beliefs through financial donations.

Cet article propose une lecture critique du concept de métapolitique, souvent mobilisé pour décrire les stratégies culturelles de l’extrême droite contemporaine. À partir d’une revue de la littérature et d’une analyse des usages émiques du terme, notamment dans l’espace numérique, l’article met en évidence l’ambivalence conceptuelle de la métapolitique, oscillant entre outil analytique et rhétorique performative. L’article identifie quatre usages émiques majeurs de la métapolitique, tels qu’ils sont mobilisés par les acteurs eux-mêmes : la création de récits, la diffusion d’idées, la production culturelle et la mobilisation des affects. L’article souligne les ambiguïtés du concept et ses fonctions performatives. En le comparant à des concepts concurrents – la cooptation et la normalisation –, l’article montre que la métapolitique permet de saisir des dynamiques plus diffuses et de long terme. Enfin, il en propose une reformulation analytique, attentive aux dimensions raciales, genrées et numériques des discours d’extrême droite, afin de penser leur impact sur la redéfinition du sens commun.

Les partis politiques adoptent des techniques de marketing dans l’élaboration et le déploiement de leurs campagnes électorales. Parmi elles, on note le recours au microciblage politique. En contexte canadien, cette approche n’a pas été étudiée au palier municipal. Cet article vise à combler cette lacune. Des entretiens semi-dirigés ont été réalisés auprès de 17 stratèges actifs dans quatre grandes villes québécoises lors des élections municipales de 2021. L’analyse de leurs récits montre qu’en dépit de la présence de réflexions et de comportements apparentés à une logique de marketing politique, les campagnes étudiées n’ont pas recours au microciblage. Elles se concentrent plutôt principalement sur le pointage et la mobilisation électorale, sans mettre à profit les données collectées sur l’électorat. Cette situation pourrait toutefois évoluer advenant une professionnalisation des campagnes dans les cycles électoraux à venir.

Agencies, boards, and commissions (ABCs) in Canada have a distinct character and set of governance dynamics compared with the conventional public service. ABCs are often conceived to deliver a particular service or regulate or adjudicate matters with some distance from the government of the day, yet (perhaps counter-intuitively) are among the few remaining sites of patronage-like appointments in Canada. This article compiles ABC appointment data (N = 2,248) from the Province of Alberta over two distinct periods—the Notley government (2015–2019) and the Kenney/Smith governments (2019–2024)—to explore the character and patterns of appointments. We find mixed evidence that appointments to ABCs with more formal autonomy are more likely to be politicized. Some metrics also suggest that the conservative party appointees are slightly more often politically connected, particularly in ABCs that reside in high priority policy areas for the appointing government, and in particular in crown corporations and regulatory agencies.

This research note introduces a new publicly available dataset identifying which federal candidates are out as LGBTQ2S+. The dataset comprises 4,201 candidates who ran in 2015, 2019 and 2021 for the five parties that won seats in the House of Commons. In this research note, we describe the replicable procedure we followed to identify out LGBTQ2S+ candidates, which involved systematic individual candidate searches. This procedure identified 176 LGBTQ2S+ candidates in total, which is more than in previous datasets. We illustrate how the data can be used by documenting how LGBTQ2S+ candidates changed over time relative to straight cisgender candidates. This dataset will allow researchers to examine a range of questions about LGBTQ2S+ representation as well as conduct intersectional analyses.

Municipal parties in Canada are unique: They are not branches of national parties, they have no established ideological orientation and their lifespans vary considerably. In light of these characteristics, political scientists tend to overlook the factors that contribute to their emergence and disappearance as well as the diversity of their forms. The objective of this article is to fill this gap. Taking the city of Montreal as a case study, we draw on an electoral database spanning from 1960 to 2001 and a systematic press review to show that a party’s longevity is influenced by factors that are either external to the parties (institutional, economic and provincial political context) or internal to the parties (strong internal coordination, charismatic leader and ability to survive after a leader’s departure). For Montreal, this translates into a longer lifespan for two types of parties: platform-based parties and government coalitions.