Local and Urban Politics

E21 - Local Politicians, Parties, and Voters

Date: Jun 4 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Kael Kropp (McGill University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Sandra Breux (INRS-Urbanisation)

Candidates’ Representational Styles in a Local Election: Halifax 2024: Kristin Good (Dalhousie University), Zack Taylor (University of Western Ontario)
Abstract: The literature on municipal elections is flourishing with important work on who gets elected and why (incumbency advantage, gender, ideological match and others) and on how unique elements of municipal institutions shape electoral outcomes (nonpartisan elections, the role of property/ homevoter and others). Whereas these studies identify the causal importance of various factors to electoral processes, we don’t know how they matter or if candidates behave as though they matter to election campaigns as they begin to cultivate a personal vote. Do municipal candidates enact the “cues” to voters that are posited in the largely statistically-driven literature? More broadly, how do candidates connect with voters and present their offer to represent them? What does representation mean to municipal candidates? As part of the Local Democracy Project, we conducted intensive fieldwork during Halifax’s nonpartisan municipal election in November, 2024. This election featured 97 candidates for mayor and 16 district councillor offices in a municipality of 440,000 people. We conducted 37 candidate interviews, attended numerous events, monitored media, and shadowed candidates on the campaign trail. Based on this work in broad dialogue with assumed candidate cues or appeals in the literature, we develop a typology of types of appeals and representational styles practiced by local candidates. We find that representational styles are diverse and are rarely a conscious strategic choice, but emerge organically from tacit knowledge and localized logics of appropriateness.

L'Évolution des Systèmes Partisans Municipaux au Québec (2005-2021) : Fragmentation, Volatilité et Tendances au Bipartisme: Alexandre Bouillon (Université Laval)
Abstract: L'étude de la politique urbaine et municipale a connu des avancées significatives depuis le constat de Taylor et Eidelman (2010). Plusieurs travaux se sont concentrés sur le comportement électoral, le profil des élu.e.s et l'analyse d'élections spécifiques (Breux & Couture, 2022). Toutefois, peu de recherches ont examiné les systèmes partisans municipaux dans leur ensemble, malgré la riche tradition en science politique sur cette question (Laakso & Taagepera, 1979; Neto & Cox, 1997; Sartori, 2005). Le caractère non-partisan des élections municipales hors-Québec explique en partie cette lacune, faisant du Québec un laboratoire privilégié pour l'étude des dynamiques partisanes locales. En mobilisant les données du Canadian Municipal Election Database (Lucas et al., 2021), cet article poursuit deux objectifs. Premièrement, il décrit l'évolution des systèmes partisans municipaux québécois entre 2005 et 2021, en analysant leur degré de fragmentation et leur volatilité (Chiaramonte et al., 2025; Golosov, 2011). Deuxièmement, il teste empiriquement l'hypothèse de "westminsterisation" avancée par Mévellec et Tremblay (2013), selon laquelle les villes québécoises adopteraient progressivement une logique gouvernement-opposition. À l'aide de l'indice de bipartisme développé par Golosov (2025), nous vérifions si une tendance au bipartisme caractérise effectivement l'évolution récente des systèmes partisans municipaux québécois.

How Municipal Candidates Think About Voters: Elite Theories of Voting Behaviour in Local Politics: Jack Lucas (University of Calgary)
Abstract: Building on recent research on politicians’ theories of voting behaviour (Lucas et al. 2024), this paper investigates how municipal candidates and their senior volunteers understand citizen decision-making and how these beliefs shape campaign behaviour. Using an ethnographic study of more than a dozen competitive candidates, campaign staffers, and senior volunteers in the 2025 Calgary municipal election—comprising over fifty hours of observation and interviewing—combined with survey data from more than 2,000 municipal politicians, the paper shows substantial variation in candidates’ working theories of how voters decide. “Issue-public” theories are especially common, with many candidates seeing municipal elections as driven by small, attentive publics rather than broad ideological or partisan forces. At the same time, while candidates widely espouse an ostensibly "democratic realist" view that most voters are politically disengaged and poorly informed about policy, they do not interpret this as evidence that voters are incapable of making meaningful judgments. Instead, consistent with Mansbridge’s selection model, candidates view voter evaluations as rooted in assessments of character, competence, and trustworthiness. By documenting these theories, the paper highlights an overlooked dimension of elite reasoning in local democracy and identifies implications for representation and accountability.

How Place Shapes Opinion: Comparing Urban Mobility Attitudes Across Canadian Cities: Jérémy Gilbert (Western University)
Abstract: This study examines how the local public transit offerings and infrastructure experienced by residents of Canadian cities correlate with attitudes toward urban mobility. Existing research shows that lived experience influences transportation attitudes, yet comparative analysis across municipalities remains limited. Using survey data from over 6,000 Canadians, drawn from the 2025 Canadian Municipal Barometer general population survey, this paper analyzes attitudes towards urban transportation policy and infrastructure. The study develops indicators of transit availability and urban mobility quality based on data from Statistics Canada and the yearbook of the Canadian Urban Transit Association to measure local transportation contexts. By examining respondents’ attitudes and local transportation indicators, the link between urban mobility lived experience and policy preferences is investigated comparatively in Canadian municipalities. The findings address a gap in Canadian urban transportation research and provide insights into how municipal infrastructure contexts are related to public support for various mobility policies, with implications for transportation planning and policy across diverse urban settings.