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Changes in the intensity of party competition drive changes in voter turnout, especially among young voters. The basic proposition has been established for elections in general (Franklin 2004) and for Canadian elections in particular (Johnston, Matthews and Bittner 2005). The details of the relationship, however, remain murky. Two related questions stand out. First, what mechanism links electoral competitiveness to the individual voter's turnout propensity? Strategic mobilization of supporters by parties and candidates seems a likely suspect (Rosenstone and Hansen 1993), but there is also evidence that voters take cues from competitive conditions directly (Cox and Munger 1989). Second, what rendering of electoral competitiveness in spatial and temporal terms is most relevant to variation in turnout? Previous work on Canadian elections has relied exclusively on contemporaneous measures of riding-level turnout (Endersby, Galatas and Rackaway 2002; Johnston, Matthews and Bittner 2005). What happens if we introduce measures aggregated to the province or nation and consider lags of electoral competitiveness?This paper addresses these questions through investigation of the spatial and temporal dimensions of competitiveness effects on turnout. The data for the analysis combines five waves of the Canadian Election Study (1988 to 2004) with indicators of electoral competitiveness measured at multiple geographical levels (riding, province, nation) and time points (current election, previous election). This multidimensional treatment not only speaks to the when and where of competitiveness, but also permits inferences about the mechanism(s) of the variable's impact on turnout. Current riding-level effects, for instance, imply an important role for the organizational efforts of parties, as an individual-level account of the relationship entails heroic assumptions about voter information. Lagged province-level effects, by contrast,are quite compatible with the low-information psychology of the typical voter. The analysis has payoffs both theoretical and practical. On the theoretical side, the paper promises to help sort out alternative accounts of the relationship between turnout and competitiveness, at the same time as it pushes the conceptual boundaries of competitiveness itself. On the practical side, the paper continues to illuminate the story of Canadian turnout decline, including treatment of the 2004 election. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that the value of party labels as heuristic devices depends on individual perceptions of party reputation, including cognition and affect. We test our theory using data collected from university students in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart have recently theorized that post-industrial societies are experiencing a gender realignment: where women were once to the right of men, they are now to their left. Canada is a prime example of the emergence of this “modern gender gap”. In the two most recent federal elections, women were more likely than men to vote for the party of the left, whereas men were more likely than women to vote for the party of the new right. As such, Canada provides a particularly suitable site for examining the impact of social networks on the gender gap in vote choice. There are at least two reasons to anticipate that the composition of women’s social networks will affect their choice of party. First, Susan Carroll has pointed to the importance of women’s autonomy for the expression of their political difference from men. Women who enjoy psychological independence from traditional sex-role socialization are more likely to vote for parties of the left. Psychological independence tends to go hand in hand with economic independence, but even women who are economically dependent may enjoy enhanced autonomy if they have access to networks that include a range of women who do enjoy such independence. Second, the composition of social networks may influence political preferences. Those with ties to a relatively wide range of women are more likely to get messages reinforcing the sorts of views that women tend to favour. Conversely, men with diverse ties to other members of their own sex are more likely to take positions that tend to be typical of men. Accordingly, we should expect to find the widest gender gaps among women and men who have the largest number of same-sex social ties. These hypotheses will be tested using data from the 2000 Canadian Election Study. The study includes measures of network diversity, as well as a wide range of attitudinal and social background variables. It will thus be possible to determine whether the composition of social networks has an influence on the gender gap in vote choice, net of other structural and situational variables that have been associated with the emergence of the modern gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Lost Canadians' are people who have recently discovered that, despite assumptions, they are not Canadian citizens. The paper explores the tension between the idea of consent and criteria of birth as conditions of political membership. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-election day voting is an increasingly important part of the Canadian electoral process. NED voters made the difference in a dozen ridings in 2004. This paper examines the dimensions of this trend and implications for electoral politics. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada and Britain both exhibit more than two parties at the district level despite the fact that both have single-member plurality systems. This paper looks at federalism and information as factors regulating strategic voting and Duverger's Law. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use Canadian survey data to examine gender differences in both types and levels of social capital and how these differences affect men and women's political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article elaborates a rationale from which party identification is seen as a hindrance to rational behavior. Hypotheses are tested in the context of the 1988 Canadian federal election. Different measures of a rational vote choice are considered. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants in Canada do not always vote Liberal. Analysis of a large sample survey taken during the 2006 election suggests immigrants are prone to vote for whichever party seems regionally dominant to express inclusion within mainstream society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How indigenous peoples fit into the federal systems of Canada and the United States has been a vexing problem to both countries for centuries. Although the problem is similar, the two countries have addressed it in different ways. Using the lens of federalism we examine how the time of independence, the role of the judiciary, and the recognition of sovereignty through history has affected the relationship between the indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada and their respective national governments. We do this through a review of the relevant literature. We finish by comparing the current place of the native populations within the two federal systems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine advance voting in the 2004 Canadian election. Advance voters differ from normal voters, and some parties do better than others in advance voting. But, advance voting success does not predict victory and likely does not change outcomes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the evolution of Canadian Supreme Court voting rights decisions from a distinct, collective-rights oriented jurisprudence to one that struggles with individual and collective rights in the same manner as its American counterpart. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]