A21(b) - Roundtable: Author Meets Critics: Party Message Discipline in Canada
Date: Jun 4 | Time: 03:15pm to 04:45pm | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Susan Delacourt (Toronto Star)
Author Meets Critics: Party Message Discipline in Canada:
Alex Marland (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Susan Delacourt (Toronto Star)
Abstract: This session involves a lively discussion about party discipline in Canada. The conversation is anchored by a forthcoming book authored by Alex Marland that presents the findings of 131 in-depth interviews with politicians and political staff across the country. Insights are shared about concealed institutions such as caucus meetings and the party whip, as well as tactics such as wedge politics, message boxes, social media shareables and vote sheets. Parliamentarians who wander off script or who purposely challenge the leader’s position in public are subject to a variety of disciplinary measures, causing some to question the nature of the political system itself. The book is a topical examination of party discipline in Canada, ranging from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s extraordinary efforts to nurture caucus cohesion through to the SNC-Lavalin affair under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.