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The transformations in recent patterns of immigration have the potential to reshape the trajectory of Canada's regional political dynamics. Drawing on data from the 1993-2006 Canadian Election Studies, this analysis explores how immigrants adjust to the prevailing regional political norms in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Do newcomers adopt the political orientations (feelings towards Canada and their province, confidence in provincial and federal governments, perceptions about how the province is treated by the federal government and support for the Liberal party! that resemble those of their native-born provincial counterparts? The results suggest that immigrants, especially newer waves from non-traditional source countries, tend to develop orientations that are more federally oriented than the local populations in their province. This tendency is most pronounced in Quebec where both groups of immigrants from traditional and non-traditional source countries internalize political grievances and norms less efficiently than their counterparts in other provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a study which determined whether enrollment diversity on U.S. college campuses benefit academic communities. Review of related literature; Data and methods used; Findings and its implications.

This article examines whether a public opinion survey can improve the quality of political attitudes. More specifically, we argue that simply positioning a summary attitudinal question after a balanced series of relevant items can increase people's ability to answer in a way that better reflects their underlying interests, values, and predispositions. By manipulating the location of the vote preference question in two separate national election campaign surveys, we find that there are fewer undecided respondents when the question is asked at the end of the survey rather than early on, that some people are changing their mind during the questionnaire, that a larger set of determinants is structuring late-survey vote choice, and that voting preferences based on the later question are a better predictor of the actual vote. The findings carry important lessons for students of deliberation and of citizen decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study to assess and compare the relative impact of issues and the economy on the vote in democratic elections. The authors construct an empirical encounter between these two alternative interpretations of vote choice, issues and economy. The authors compare the relative impact of the issues and the economy at the individual and at the aggregate level. At the individual level, the authors wish to determine how many voters would have voted differently if the issues or the economy had had no effect on their vote choice. At the aggregate level, the authors wish to estimate how different the outcome of the election would have been if the issues of the economy had played no role.

This article ascertains the impact of local candidates on vote choice in the 2000 Canadian election. The authors show that 44 per cent of Canadian voters formed a preference for a local candidate and that this preference had an effect on vote choice independent of how people felt about the parties and the leaders. The findings suggest that the local candidate was a decisive consideration for 5 per cent of Canadian voters, 6 per cent outside Quebec and 2 per cent in Quebec. Although preference for a local candidate had a similar effect on urban and rural voters, as well as on voters of varying degrees of sophistication, the findings revealed that rural voters and more sophisticated voters were more likely to have formed a preference for their local candidate. As a consequence, the local candidate was more likely to be a decisive consideration for more sophisticated rural voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue importance mediates the impact of public policy issues on electoral decisions. Individuals who consider that an issue is important are more likely to rely on their attitudes toward that issue when evaluating candidates and deciding for whom to vote. The logic behind the link between issue importance and issue voting should translate to a link between issue importance and performance voting. Incumbent performance evaluations regarding an issue should have a stronger impact on the vote choice of individuals who find that issue important. The analysis demonstrates that there is a significant interaction between performance evaluations and issue importance. People concerned about an issue assign more weight to their evaluations of the government's performance on that issue when making up their mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the impact of issues and the economy in the 1997 Canadian election among voters outside Quebec. Examination of the vote outside Quebec; Distribution of voters' opinion; Distance between voters and parties; Effect of issues and the economy on vote choice.

The article assesses the reliability of time-of-voting decision recall in Canada. The quality of information provided by individuals in response to recall questions can be influenced by several factors, notably, the complexity of the question, the deficiencies of memory, and the inclination to give socially acceptable answers. This study draws on data that allow for a precise test of the validity of responses to time-of-voting-decision recall. The 1997 Canadian Election Study contains a rolling cross-sectional component and a panel component. A representative sample of 80-140 respondents was interviewed each day of the 36-day campaign to track the dynamics of vote intentions. The results for both close- and open-ended questions display an impressive degree of consistency. There is evidence of great stability among individuals who claim to have decided before the campaign. But similarly stable vote choices are also evident among all groups interviewed after their reported time of decision. By contrast, there is little stability among respondents who say they decided after their preelection interview. To put a summary statistic on these findings, we can estimate the proportion of respondents whose behavior and reported time of decision coincide. All in all, the behavioral pattern of some 80 percent of the respondents turns out to be consistent with their reported time of decision.

The article proposes an empirically based reflection on how to measure party identification cross nationally, using data from the 1997 Canadian Election Study, the 1997 British Election Study, and the 1996 American National Election Study. These studies included both traditional national questions and a new common one, which allows for an assessment of the effects of question wording on the distribution and correlates of party identification. We show that the distribution of party identification is strongly affected by question wording and that the relationship between party identification and variables such as party and leader ratings, and voting behavior does not quite conform to theoretical expectations. We point out problems in the wording of party identification questions and propose an alternative formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]