The Fight of the Century? An introduction to the 2015 Canadian federal election

David Houle, post-doctorate fellow at the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), will present a brief introduction to Canadian politics and an overview of the current 2015 federal election set to unfold on October 19, 2015. The presentation will be followed by an informal discussion.

About the speaker:
David Houle is a postdoctoral fellow associated with the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. David completed a PhD in political science and environmental studies at the University of Toronto after obtaining a M.A. in Policy Analysis and a B.A. in Economics and Politics at Laval University (Quebec City, Canada). His primary area of research is subnational climate change policy in North America, especially carbon pricing in the provinces and states. David's secondary areas of research include the transition to a low carbon economy and renewable energy policy. His research has recently been featured in Global Environmental Politics (MIT Press) and the Journal of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press).

David is currently investigating the resilience of carbon pricing policy to understand the obstacles that states and provinces have encountered and which prevent them from implementing and maintaining cap-and-trade systems or carbon taxes. While many provinces and states have committed to the implementation of carbon pricing, only a few have carried out this commitment and maintained these policies given changes in political leadership and resistance from important GHG emitters. However, continuous implementation has also been observed both in Canada and the US, for instance in Quebec and California. The study of these examples, along with jurisdictions that have been less successful, allows us to understand the importance of the politico-economic context and the role of key policy-makers in carbon pricing resilience.

Also, since subnational governments that have implemented carbon pricing have relied only on modest carbon prices, David is also interested to understand the barriers to the adoption of high level carbon prices needed to provide the incentives for the deep GHG emissions reduction necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. His research at CLOSUP is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). David is also a co-founder of the Carbon Quebec Institute, a non-profit research institute on climate policy and a regular contributor to Vox Pop Labs, a social enterprise that has produced the voter education tool Vote Compass used in recent American, Canadian, and Australian elections.

 Personal website: https://umich.academia.edu/DavidHoule

Sponsored by:  The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP)

• Canada
• elections