Jointly sponsored by the Bell Chair in Canadian Parliamentary Democracy at Carleton University and the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at Acadia University.

When I was associate dean for research, I was keenly aware that pretty much everything I did took away rather than contributed to the operating budget. New money was only for new things. But it wasn’t clear if people understood this.

Doubleplusungood.

Thanks Ian!

Worst university slogan since 1999 when Carleton deeply offended multiple disciplines with the line “Carleton University: For an education that’s about tomorrow, not yesterday.” www.chronicle.com/article/carl...

For that matter why do American schools end in early June and drag kids back in hot mid-August?

It falls under Teaching and Learning Services, though that's a wide umbrella.

Makes John Tibbetts look like a late-starting newcomer.

On a final note, I was also very pleased to welcome our new president, Dr Tamara Small of the University of Guelph. The @cpsa-acsp.bsky.social is in excellent hands under Dr Small's leadership.

As with my predecessors' talks, the address will be published in the December issue of the Canadian Journal of Political Science. I'm happy to share the text with anyone now though; just ask.

At a time when democratic institutions are under pressure around the world, the study of Canadian political institutions remains more important than ever, but in new and expanded ways, beyond the traditional "legion of improvers."

The field has been invigorated by approaches such as feminist institutionalism that unpack the institutions themselves and their assumptions and cultures. Particularly important are the cues that may seem obvious to people like me but are less visible to racialized and other equity-seeking groups.

While there was much good work, we also had many blind spots, particularly the extent to which most of us were white men studying the institutions of other white men, and how power could be redistributed, often to other white men. This led us into circular discussions with diminishing returns.

My address, "Canadian Institutionalism: Political Science and the Study of Political Institutions in Canada," focused on the "legion of improvers," including myself, that long took a normative view of Canadian political institutions, often embedding ourselves within the state to study the state.

*minus the five CPSA confs held outside Congress

Puts my 30 year streak* since 1995 to shame.

There will definitely be an in-person CPSA conference next year. Despite the short notice of the Congress cancellation, we are now working hard on a location.