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    Canadian Political Science Association
    2020 Annual Conference Programme

    Confronting Political Divides
    Hosted at Western University
    Tuesday, June 2 to Thursday, June 4, 2020
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    Presidential Address:
    Barbara Arneil, CPSA President

    Origins:
    Colonies and Statistics

    Location:
    Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 05:00pm to 06:00pm
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    KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
    Ayelet Shachar
    The Shifting Border:
    Legal Cartographies of Migration
    and Mobility

    Location:
    June 04, 2020 | 01:30 to 03:00 pm
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    Keynote Speaker: Marc Hetherington
    Why Modern Elections
    Feel Like a Matter of
    Life and Death

    Location:
    Wednesday, June 3, 2020 | 03:45pm to 05:15pm
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    Plenary Panel
    Indigenous Politics and
    the Problem of Canadian
    Political Science

    Location: Arts & Humanities Building - AHB 1R40
    Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 10:30am to 12:00pm

Local and Urban Politics



E05 - Urban Policy and Marginalized Groups

Date: Jun 2 | Time: 01:30pm to 03:00pm | Location:

Local Government-Third Sector Partnerships in a Context of State Rescaling: The Case of the Age-friendly Cities Program in Toronto: Meghan Joy (Concordia University)
Abstract: The Age-friendly Cities (AFC) program is a popular local policy approach intended to support senior citizens to age-in-place. The intention is that senior citizens, third sector agencies, and local governments work in partnership to design municipal aging strategies and policy actions. While expectations surrounding AFCs are high, research has documented gaps in the scale of the program in practice. A major challenge has been that the design and implementation of AFC programs are overly reliant on third sector agencies and voluntary labour. However, there is little research that explores the unique role of the third sector in local age-friendly policymaking. While the third sector is lauded for its innovative approach to local problem solving, there is little examination as to how this is affected by trends to professionalization and marketization documented in non-profit literature. This is a problem in an environment of policy rescaling where actors from local government and the third sector are increasingly expected to ‘solve’ major policy challenges. This paper fills these knowledge gaps through an analysis of the role of the third sector in AFC policy in the City of Toronto. I have conducted 77 semi-structured interviews with local policy actors from the government, third sector, and policy expert communities. The purpose of the paper is to theorize the nature of the third sector policy role from a critical perspective and identify concrete ways in which roles and partnerships that promote equity and social justice for senior citizens are stifled and nurtured.


Seniors and Politics: Link Between Living in an Urban Environment and their Municipal Political Life: Salomé Vallette (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Abstract: The urbanization of societies and the ageing of a segment of their population are not without problems: urban environments are not particularly well adapted to the ageing of the population. Klinenberg (2002) points out that the structural characteristics of the urban environment reduce the quality of life of older residents, including barriers to physical mobility such as broken stairs, poorly maintained sidewalks or poor lighting. Dostie-Goulet et al. (2013) explain that urban experience, particularly through the use of municipal services, could be an important factor to consider in political participation, whether electoral or not. Considering that seniors vote in high proportions in different elections, compared to other age groups (Kimberlee 2002; Dostie-Goulet et al. 2013) and also offer more volunteer hours (Statistics Canada 2015), we ask ourselves the following question: In Quebec, how does the experience of seniors in their city affect their participation in municipal politics? This question allows us to lay the basis for a reflection on the links between living in an urban environment and seniors' participation in municipal political life. Data are collected in the cities of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Repentigny, two Montreal suburban cities, by focus groups and individual interviews. This research would allow us to obtain results on the reasons, meanings and explanatory values for municipal political participation among seniors aged 65 and over. For this presentation, we will present preliminary results of our research, concerning the electoral participation of seniors at the municipal level.


Homelessness on the Rural-Urban Fringe: The Case of Dufferin County: Tobin Haley (Cape Breton University), Laura Pin (University of Guelph)
Abstract: Small municipalities on the rural-urban fringe (RUF) are among the fastest growing communities in Canada, with some experiencing over 70% population growth from 2011-2016 (Statistics Canada, 2017). This rapid growth has created pressures on housing markets in rural-urban communities, generating crises of housing affordability and increases in homelessness. Thus housing on the RUF is an urgent issue for Ontario’s municipalities, which increasingly bear responsibility for housing and poverty reduction strategies (Haley, 2017). Yet despite existing as a “distinct space” where the rhythms of city and country life collide (Peacock & Pemberton, 2019), RUF communities are routinely ignored in Canadian housing scholarship, which often focuses on large urban centres. This paper uses a community-engaged research approach to investigate housing dynamics in Dufferin County, ON., a rural-urban region substantially impacted by speculative housing dynamics emanating from the City of Toronto, 80km to the south. Using original data from 102 surveys, 12 interviews, and 5 focus groups with service providers and people living with homelessness, we interrogate the local impacts of systemic shifts in housing policy. Using Dufferin County as a case study of the unique manifestations of homelessness on the RUF, this paper attends closely to how relations of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and ability affect housing security. In rural-urban communities, the intersecting consequences of multiple forms of discrimination can quickly destabilize housing, as fewer resources are available in comparison with large cities. This research emphasizes the importance of developing housing policy tools specifically focused on the RUF.




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