Members of our team are working with colleagues across Canada to improve the way we use surveys to measure peoples’ underlying beliefs and values.
Viewpoint Alberta Project
Exit, Stage West? Motivations for Secession in Alberta and Saskatchewan
These online surveys measure the extent to which Alberta remains Canada’s bastion of conservatism. Principal Investigators Jared Wesley (University of Alberta) and Loleen Berdahl (University of Saskatchewan) have assembled a team of eleven (11) researchers to study the attitudinal and demographic influences on Albertans’ political behaviour. This project is funded by a Kule Institute for Advanced Study Collaborative Grant supported by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan.
Six (6) researchers, including principal investigators Jared Wesley
(University of Alberta) and Loleen Berdahl (University of Saskatchewan), have developed a project that seeks to isolate the emotional and rational triggers of separatism in Western Canada. The goal is to inform ongoing public debate about national unity in Canada, and establish groundbreaking experimental knowledge on secession attitudes outside Quebec.
The Consortium on Electoral Democracy (C-Dem)
Jared Wesley serves as a co-investigator on the C-Dem team, which is conducting surveys in conjunction with federal, provincial and territorial elections across Canada. C-Dem is a network that brings together over 50 researchers and partner organizations across the country. This network seeks to foster the co-development of research and policy-relevant data
and analyses.
The Comparative Provincial Election Project (CPEP)
The Comparative Provincial Election Project (CPEP) seized an unprecedented opportunity of having fixed election dates in 2011-2015 to study the quality of democracy in each Canadian province. The research team used its combined expertise to assess whether the depth of Canada's "democratic deficit" differs from province to province. Answers to these queries will provide valuable lessons for academics, officials, and citizens intent on increasing the level of political engagement and satisfaction across Canada.