Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

My Words, Or Yours? Analyzing The Development Of Cannabis Legislation In Canada, Cynthia Huo

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Although there have been many prominent examples of policy learning and transfer across governments in Canada, policy diffusion in the Canadian context remains an understudied topic. This project seeks to contribute to the literature by empirically analyzing the development of cannabis legislation in Canadian provinces and territories in the months leading up to the federal legalization of cannabis in October 2018. We utilize textual similarity software to analyze similarities between cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco legislation in provinces and territories and find that rather than learning from each other in developing their cannabis laws, provinces and territories replicated their existing alcohol …

Candidate Ideology And Positioning In The 2022 Conservative Leadership Race, Chon Kei Chen

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This project examined the role of ideology in the 2022 Conservative leadership race. The first part investigated how ideological divisions within the party, and across each candidate, were portrayed in prominent media. The second part then sought to determine how each candidate actually positioned themselves in terms of broad values, specific issues, and the other candidates. The aim was to determine the extent to which ideology helps to explain candidate positioning and coalition building.

Planning For Micromobilities In Canada: Transportation Policy Review, Nathaniel C. Frisbee Ba, Jason Gilliland Phd, Jinhyung Lee Phd

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Canadian municipalities face a complex decision on how they tackle the ‘wicked problem’ of climate change over the next decades. One form of sustainable transportation that municipalities could pursue is light electric vehicles (LEVs), commonly referred to as e-bikes and e-scooters or referred to as a Power Assisted-Bicycle by Transportation Canada. Transportation-related policies and plans of Canadian municipalities were evaluated for their consideration of LEVs. Municipalities were selected based on having a university campus within their boundaries, as this is where the highest density of Canadian population resides. The analysis spreads across all 10 provinces in Canada.  There are significant …

How Urban Outmigration From Toronto Is Going To Impact Rural Ontario, Amanda M. Gutzke

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

These articles examine the outmigration of people from urban Ontario to rural Ontario during the Covid-19 pandemic. These articles use census data from Statistics Canada to explore population growth rates across CMAs and CAs. In addition, data from Statistics Canada is used to demonstrate the impact of intraprovincial migration on small towns and rural Ontario. Moreover, these articles touch upon semi-structured interviews with local elected officials, local administrative officials, and community leaders to showcase the impact of urban outmigration on rural Ontario. These articles argue that housing affordability is one of the most salient consequences of urban outmigration. These articles …

The Development Of Conspiracy Theories During The Freedom Convoy, Srinjoyee Chakraborty Ms.

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Conspiracy theories have been prevalent throughout history, especially during periods of fear and uncertainty as people build a narrative against political elites and blame misdeeds on their malignant nature. A case study of this phenomenon can be examined in the Canadian Freedom Convoy. The Freedom Convoy began in early 2022 as a protest against COVID-19 mandates, attracting significant political attention as an unprecedented event that eventually forced Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. As political tensions and opinions arose on social media, conspiracist groups began to develop conspiracy theories about the Truck Convoy in order to attract attention from potential …

The Data Science Of Predicting Elections, Kenn S. Mcdonald

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Psephology is the statistical study of election data, often used by data journalists and political operatives to predict the results of elections before they occur. In a Canadian context, this new field of data science has been notably used by CBC and Maclean's to create prediction models for federal and provincial elections.

This project created one such model to predict the 2022 Ontario General Election. It ran under the conventional Uniform Swing method with regional poll averages from CBC News used as inputs.

Welfare And Welfare Statism, Christopher Adepoju

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

As was famously stated by Margaret Mead, “Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts”. The contemporary discourse surrounding welfare and welfare statismis the fruit of a long history whose roots can be traced back through different societies in addressing the universal questions of care and provision. This article is an account of the diverse origins of modern Welfare discourse, as well as a normative overview of the varying arguments in favour of, and against it

Addressing First Nations' Concerns In Water Sharing Agreements, Cynthia Huo

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Water sharing agreements are a potential solution to the issue of ongoing water insecurity in First Nations' communities. They involve a First Nation connecting their water system to that of a nearby municipality, and paying that municipality a fee for water provision. However, some First Nations have been reluctant to enter into these types of agreements. We identified 3 categories of concerns that First Nations may have: capacity, cultural protection, and sovereignty. We analyzed and coded 54 existing water sharing agreements to see how well they responded to these concerns, and conclude with recommendations about how agreements might be amended …

Star Political Candidates In Canada, Mateo Larrazabal

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

A brief overview of the work that I completed over the Summer of 2021. I examined star political candidates in Canada, a field in political science that has not been researched thoroughly nationally. I discuss a few of the key findings in my blog post and offer a brief overview of everything in my video.

Expanding Horizons: China’S Perception And Management Of Globalization, Xiaofan Mu

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.