Police violence towards racialized minorities is often discussed in US politics, most recently because of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020. But structural racism is a problem in Canada as well. According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, black people in Toronto are 20x more likely than other Canadians to be killed by police. Further, police violence towards Canada’s indigenous communities is well documented. How can we understand police violence in Canada and what can be done to fix it?

The politics of pipelines in Canada touches on three important policy issues: the environment, regionalism, and indigenous politics. In western Canada, anti-pipeline sentiment is seen as an affront to Alberta and the economic benefits of Canada’s resource economy. In the east, pipelines represent big oil, environmental catastrophe, and climate change. For Canada’s Indigenous people, pipelines are either an infringement on their sovereign territory, or an economic opportunity to help lift communities out of poverty. In this lecture, we will work to disentangle these competing policy narratives to get to the heart of pipeline politics in Canada.

As sick as we all are of hearing about the “new normal”, we cannot avoid dealing with the implications of COVID-19 in our daily lives, and in public policy. The pandemic provides us with an interesting case study to explore some of the theories and concepts we have studied in action. How has evidence-based policy fared during the pandemic? How has the government made use of policy narratives to convince people to adopt public health measures? Why did Canada and the US take such radically different approaches to dealing with the disease? This week we will look at the politics of rona.

Since the 1960s, feminist and 2SLGBTQ+ activists and academics have fought to bring issues related to gender and sexuality onto the political agenda. From issues of women’s underrepresentation in politics and government to social issues like abortion, gay marriage, and maternity leave, feminism has had a massive impact on public policy. This week we will look at key policy issues through the lens of gender.

Firearms policy (sometimes called gun control) is a contentious issue in Canadian politics.  While most ordinary Canadians are aware that gun control is stricter in Canada than in the U.S., firearms policy in Canada remains widely misunderstood. This briefing will give you a short history and overview of firearms policy in Canada, and present some ideas on how you can use the concepts/theories we have looked at in the course to better understand this complex issue. 

Politics is the story of people coming together to make change. This story is not always a nice one. Why do we have so much trouble getting along? How can we encourage people to work together to solve complex transnational problems like climate change? Collective action (advocacy, lobbying, protest) also provides a way for everyday people to participate in politics beyond simply casting a ballot every four years. How do collective actors influence policy?

Our ideas can change the world. Don’t believe me? Think about the influence of powerful ideologies like Liberalism, Marxism, or Fascism on the history of the 20th century? But how do ideas get translated into action? More specifically, how do ideas influence policy? How does power enter into the mix? All of this and more is just a click away. 

Why can leaders like Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau prorogue (temporarily shut down) Parliament when it suits their interests? How does the First Past the Post System in Canada, or the American Electoral College influence election outcomes? Institutions serve as formal and informal rules of the game that policymakers must adhere to. They can often have a profound influence on policy. This week we will examine why institutions matter in politics. It’s less boring than it sounds, I promise!

We heard a lot about structural racism following the wave of police killings in America this summer. But what is structural racism? What are social structures? How do they influence policy?

You have likely heard politicians try to sell their policies as “evidence-based”. After all, it is hard to be against policies based on evidence, right? But policymaking is a tricky business, and evidence is not always clear – it must be interpreted by policymakers and filtered through the prisms of interest and ideology. 

In this episode, we examine the concept of rationality in public policy. Can we take the power out of politics? Can science solve all of our problems? Tune in to find out!