Sean Speer is the Editor-At-Large at The Hub, a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and previously served as Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He and Elizabeth chat about political polarization and dig into the different theories of polarization including elite polarization and mass polarization, as well as ideological versus affective polarization. They discuss the idea of politics as a left-to-right spectrum, polarization causing artificial divides, the rise of populism, and the idea that polarization can be used as a tool for meaningful progress.

Additional Resources

• Interested in learning more about political polarization from an academic perspective? This systematic review by Kubin & von Sikorski is a good place to start.
• Elizabeth mentions two past episodes of Wonks and War Rooms: this episode about issue ownership with Tiffany Gooch and this episode about the high-choice media environment with Jane Lytvynenko.
• Sean speaks about how Canadian campaign finance regimes might contribute to political polarization. This article gives a brief overview of how political parties are financed in Canada.  
• Sean and Elizabeth spend some time discussing the link between populism and polarization. This video shows what the rise of modern populism is all about.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.