Canadian Municipal Barometer

A new partnership to generate high-quality data and rigorous analysis of Canadian municipal democracy and public policy.

The Canadian Municipal Barometer is an annual survey of mayors and councillors in more than 400 municipalities across Canada that will provide new insights for academic researchers, municipal policymakers, and the general public. The project is generously supported by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant and by contributions from our institutional partners.

2020 Survey

The first annual Canadian Municipal Barometer survey will be distributed to mayors and councillors across Canada early in 2020. We will publish a series of reports and analyses -- including a municipal policy report, a municipal democracy checkup, and customized reports for participating municipalities -- shortly after the survey is complete. Please check back later in 2019 for more information about what to expect from the first survey.

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Research Team

Jack Lucas

University of Calgary

Jack Lucas (Project Director) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. His research is focused on Canadian urban politics and policy, with a particular focus on the historical development and present-day practice of municipal democracy. His publications include articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Public Administration, Urban Affairs Review, and Journal of Urban Affairs, as well as a book published in 2016 by University of Toronto Press.

Jen Arntfield

Federation of Canadian Municipalities

Jen Arntfield is Manager of Policy and Research at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, where she is a national leader in developing policy positions and research projects related to the Canadian municipal sector. She has extensive experience in Canadian municipal policymaking and connections to practitioners in the municipal sector across Canada. Prior to joining FCM, Jen led affordable housing policy and strategy at the City of Calgary and was a Manager at Deloitte Consulting Canada.

Kelly Blidook

Memorial University

Kelly Blidook is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Memorial University. His research focuses on representation, responsiveness, and Canadian legislative behaviour. His publications include articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science and Legislative Studies Quarterly, as well as Representation in Action, a new book on Canadian political representation published by UBC Press.

Sandra Breux

INRS

Sandra Breux is an Associate Professor at the Centre Culture Urbanisation Société of the INRS (Institut national de la recherche scientifique). Her research is focused on Canadian municipal politics, with a special focus on municipal accountability and responsiveness, municipal public policy, and municipal elections and voting behaviour. Her published research includes articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science, Environment and Planning C, and a recent edited volume, Accountability and Responsiveness at the Municipal Level, published in 2018 by McGill-Queen's University Press.

Gabriel Eidelman

University of Toronto

Gabriel Eidelman is Director of the Urban Policy Lab at the University of Toronto. His research is focused on Canadian and comparative urban policy and intergovernmental relations, and the politics of public land ownership. His academic publications include articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Urban Affairs Review. He is also the author of several reports and briefings on urban governance and municipal administration, and recently led the University of Toronto's City Hall Task Force.

Royce Koop

University of Manitoba

Royce Koop is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. His research focuses on political representation, political parties, and local government in Canada. His academic publications include articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science and Urban Affairs Review on municipal political representation in Canada, as well as articles in American Journal of Political Science and Representation. His most recent book, Representation in Action, was published by UBC Press in 2018.

Michael Morden

Samara Canada

Michael Morden is Research Director at the Samara Centre for Democracy, where he is responsible for leading the Samara Centre's program of research on Canadian democracy and contributing to its mission of asking critical questions, producing new evidence, and linking knowledge to action. Michael holds a PhD in political science from the University of Toronto; along with numerous reports and briefings, he has published articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Public Administration, and Nations and Nationalism.

Advisory Committee

Thomas Ivacko

University of Michigan

Thomas Ivacko is Associate Director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the University of Michigan, where he oversees the Center's annual Michigan Public Policy Survey. Prior to joining CLOSUP, he was study manager and program manager for the American National Election Study. Thomas is an expert on survey design and administration with extensive practical experience in elite and public opinion survey research.

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Katherine Einstein

Boston University

Katherine Einstein is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Boston University and one of the principal investigators of the Menino Survey of Mayors, a large annual survey of American mayors. She is an accomplished scholar of municipal democracy and public policy, with recent publications in journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Perspectives on Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and Urban Affairs Review, as well as a forthcoming book Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America's Housing Crisis (Cambridge University Press).

Peter Loewen

University of Toronto

Peter Loewen is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Munk School at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on elite and citizen behaviour in Canadian and comparative contexts. He is a leader in innovative survey design and data analysis in both public opinion and elite survey research in Canada. His publications on public and elite political behaviour include articles in American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, and Canadian Journal of Political Science.

Andrew Sancton

Western University

Andrew Sancton is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Western University, and is Canada's leading expert on municipal politics and policy. His research interests span municipal democracy, public policy, municipal governance, and municipal institutional reform, and he is the author of Canadian Local Government: An Urban Perspective, a leading textbook on Canadian municipal government. His many publications include articles in Canadian Journal of Political Science and Urban Affairs Review, as well as The Limits of Boundaries, published in 2008 by McGill-Queen's University Press.

Enid Slack

University of Toronto

Enid Slack is Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, Canada's leading research institute on municipal finance, governance, and public policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She consults on municipal finance and governance issues with governments and international agencies such as the World Bank, IMF, UN Habitat, Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Growth Centre (at Oxford and LSE). Enid has published numerous books and articles on urban public finance. Recent publications include Financing Infrastructure: Who Should Pay? and Is Your City Healthy? Measuring Urban Fiscal Health.

News

CMB wins SSHRC Partnership Development Grant

We are delighted to announce that our application for a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant to support the Canadian Municipal Barometer was successful! We are grateful for SSHRC and our seven institutional partners for their generous support.