Professors Drummond and MacDermid comment on Liberal Ken Dryden's defeat in York Centre

After three terms in office, hockey legend Ken Dryden couldn't save his seat in York Centre on Monday, giving up a riding the Liberals have safely held for almost half a century, wrote The Canadian Press May 3 (via The Record.com): Considered one of the most vulnerable Liberal incumbents heading into the federal election, Dryden […]

Professor Robert MacDermid shares last-minute insight on interpreting polls

Elections Canada requires the publishers of public opinion surveys during elections to publish some facts about the methodology, so readers can gauge how reliable the poll is, wrote Global Television News online April 28: Anyone transmitting the results of a poll has to include the name of the sponsor and the company that did the […]

Professor Robert Drummond gives politicans how-to guide for connecting with averages joes

Is having an ordinary-guy, awshucks image really that important when it comes to an election race? wrote the Toronto Sun April 3: A York University political science prof says it's hit or miss. "Populism is an overused term," said Robert Drummond. "It means having ordinary people making decisions rather than experts – it's appealing, but […]

Professor Lisa Philipps notes one string attached to Harper's family tax cut plan

Income-splitting for families with dependent children under 18 is a huge policy initiative for Stephen Harper’s majority-hungry Conservative party, wrote the Financial Post March 28, in a story outlining the details of the plan. So huge, you wonder why it wasn’t the centrepiece of last week’s dead-on-arrival federal budget. But the Family Tax Cut plan […]

Osgoode Professor Lisa Philipps: Fiscal favours are eroding Canada's tax system

With Tuesday’s budget, the federal government continued its love affair with tax expenditures, those special breaks that target tax relief to select causes or groups, wrote Lisa Philipps, professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, in the Toronto Star March 23: Like many Liberal budgets before them, every one of the Conservative budgets since 2006 […]