Suchergebnisse

Anyone with a passing understanding of Canadian politics is aware of the stubborn presence of party discipline in the parliamentary system. It is not a phenomenon that has been left to the stuffy corners of the ivory tower. Political actors and the media have complained about party discipline for decades. Reforms have been proposed; party leaders have promised new ways forward. As a central trait of Canadian Parliament, party discipline has driven away voters—it has even inspired the development of new political parties. What role can Canadian political science play in understanding party discipline 75 years after these familiar sentiments appeared in the predecessor to this journal: "How could this control [party discipline] be destroyed, and the individual member be made an independent critic of government and of legislation, and a responsible servant of the people" (Morton, 1946: 136)? It turns out Canadian political science has much to offer. With the publication of J. F. Godbout'sLost on Division: Party Unity in the Canadian Parliamentand Alex Marland'sWhipped: Party Discipline in Canada, 2020 has been a monumental year for the study of Canadian Parliament and political parties.

Abstract
In 2014, the Canadian Conservative government caused much concern and debate amongst academics, the media and public over proposed changes to the Elections Act, which would restrict communications from the Chief Electoral Officer. The debate over Bill C-23 provides the opportunity to explore the role of electoral management bodies in civic education. This article argues that based on policy precedent at the provincial level and general institutional support across Canada that there is a case to be made for a civic education role for EMBs, going beyond the responsibility of simply providing answers on 'How to Vote' but also suggesting answers to the question of 'Why Vote'.

Abstract
Although civic education in Canada is typically seen as the responsibility of the provincial public school system and despite the fact that youth disengagement is widely accepted as a problem, civic education is a policy area that does not receive sustained attention from either the public or government. However, attention to the problem of political apathy and ignorance in Canada continues to grow and the number of policy actors in both governmental and non-governmental settings is increasing. The growing civic education policy network and community is occurring in a vacuum of policy ambiguity and ambivalence. In an attempt to better understand the civic education policy network in Canada we surveyed both federal and provincial government and non-governmental actors. In our survey, we asked policy actors to rank other policy actors in terms of collaboration, trust, influence and reliance in the policy network. In addition to this we asked the actors about their attitudes on the policy outcomes of civic education policy in relation to political behaviour and political knowledge. Our findings suggest that the policy network is highly centralized with federal government actors and a handful of national non-government actors. Also, we found that civic education policy actors in Canada generally agree on both political knowledge and political behaviour policy outcomes.

The politicization of government communications requires intense control. Centralization of government power accompanies advances in information and communications technology, as political elites use branding strategy in an attempt to impose discipline on their messengers and on media coverage. The strategic appeal of public sector branding is that it replaces conflicting messages with penetrating message reinforcement. Among the notable features are central control, a marketing ethos, a master brand, communications cohesiveness, and message simplicity. Together these features work to conflate the party government and the public service, which perpetuates trends of centralization. Using Canada's Conservative government (2006–2015) as a case study, public sector branding explains the hyper control over government communications and demonstrates why these developments can be expected to last, regardless of which party or leader is in control.