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Canadian Political Science Association2025 Annual Conference Programme
The Politics of Belonging: Conflict,
Community, Curriculum
Hosted at George Brown College, Toronto, CANADA
June 3 to June 5, 20252025 Annual Conference Programme
The Politics of Belonging: Conflict,
Community, Curriculum
Hosted at George Brown College
June 3 to June 5, 2025
Canadian Politics
A02(b) - Rountable - The Working Class and Politics in Canada
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 10:15am to 11:45am | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Jacob Robbins-Kanter (Bishop's University)
Dennis Pilon (York University)Simon Kiss (Wilfred Laurier University)
Valérie-Anne Mahéo (Université Laval )
Royce Koop (University of Manitoba)
Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant (Queen's University)
Abstract: This roundtable will feature contributors from the forthcoming volume, The Working Class and Politics in Canada (2025, UBC Press). The contributors will discuss key findings and arguments from their chapters, which cover the following topics: the study of class in the discipline of Canadian politics, class status and voting behaviour (especially the conservative turn in working-class voting), and the political participation of the working class. Generally speaking, working-class Canadians have been frqeuently overlooked by politicians, policymakers, and political scientists. Some question the political relevance of class status. This is troubling, as the working-class accounts for a substantial share of Canada’s population and class differences have enduring relevance for how people relate to politics. Increased socioeconomic inequality, changing labour market patterns, and shifting electoral alignments make it essential to revisit the political importance of class and to consider the experience of workers in Canadian politics and society. Our volume contains four sections focused on the Canadian working class and its relationship to political science, political parties, voting behaviour, and democracy. The volume’s 17 contributors employ diverse methodological approaches and uncover specific ways in which class background remains an important factor in explaining political outcomes and behaviour. The volume explains that Canadian political institutions reflect the priorities of affluent Canadians but traditional portrayals of Canada as a predominantly middle-class society are misleading. Moreover, the intersection of class status and other aspects of identity, including gender and race, has important—and sometimes counterintuitive—effects and implications. Overall, the volume provides an up-to-date assessment, based on new data and original insights, of the working class and its place in contemporary Canadian politics.