Guy Lachapelle

L'élection québécoise de 1985: un bilan des sondages

A great number of polls have been made public by the media during the 1985 electoral campaign in Quebec. The polls correctly predicted the winning party, but were not very good for forecasting the actual vote. A difference of 3 percent has been observed between the prediction and the vote with respect to the Liberal party and third parties considered as a whole. It is shown that the discrepancy must be attributed more to those who do not answer polls at all than to those individuals not willing to reveal their vote intention. Finally, the campaign seems to have had a small impact on the vote, the Liberal party increasing its share by 2 per cent and third parties loosing many votes among those who were tempted to support them at the beginning of the campaign.

Political Coalitions in Canada: Understanding the Fabric of Canadian Federalism

As a part of a collection dealing with political coalitions in federal states, this book chapter will investigate the case of Canada. To begin with, a brief analysis of the single-member plurality electoral system (SMP) is in order as it helps set the table for party politics. To this effect, SMP is important because it influences the chances a political party will form a majority or minority government. In the case of the latter, political coalitions are more likely to occur as the minority government seeks support outside the party. At the federal level in Canada, the New Democratic Party often holds the balance of power in these situations, which empowers them in the legislative process. With this in mind, a section on these coalitions and the balance of power, particularly in the case of minority governments at the federal level, will be included. Political parties have also been incubators for regionalism. Therefore this chapter will include a section on political parties formed at the provincial level and federal level. For example, the case of the Bloc Quebecois at the federal level and its sister organization the Parti Quebecois at the provincial will be included. More recently, the case of the Conservative Party of Canada will be examined as it draws its origins from multiple political parties. Lastly, the policy areas of electoral reform and climate policy are worth taking a closer look at as these require broad participation and consent. All in all, the book chapter will attempt to elaborate on key features of political coalitions in Canada, as federalism seeks to reconcile pluralism.

Political science, global environmental change and sustainable development

Political science is key to understanding national and organisational responses to climate change by states and other actors. Recent learning about globalisation has many applications for political scholarship in the context of global environmental change, as the International Political Science Association (IPSA) reports.