On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by my friend Dr. Jared Wesley a political scientist, associate professor, and Director of Master’s programs at the University of Alberta’s Department of Political Science.
Full disclosure, Jared and I were graduate students at the University of Calgary together and our chat today mimics the many we had while sharing an office while completing our PhDs.
Along with his teaching and administrative duties, Jared is also leading the Common Ground Politics (https://www.commongroundpolitics.ca/) – a research project helping to uncover the values that underpin politics in Western Canada and the American West.
On the podcast, we spoke about his research and perspectives on the East/West divide in Canada, the future of federalism, and what’s happening in Alberta.
There’s just over a week to go in this federal election campaign and the outcome is so uncertain. The leaders debated twice this past week and the polls continue to suggest this very close. Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives appear to have any momentum at this point. On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by my really good friend Dennis Matthews. Dennis is currently President of Creative Currency, an advertising agency affiliated with Enterprise Canada. He was the National Marketing Lead for the Conservative Party in 2015 and recently helped manage communications and advertising for the come-from-behind winning Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party. We sat down a few hours after the English language debate to talk about the campaign, how to campaign when voters aren't paying attention, how to communicate and engage voters in the digital age, and what his experience in Nova Scotia taught him about politics today. ...
On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by Federico Hoyos (Hoy-Yosh), the former Colombian Ambassador to Canada. Mr. Hoyos served as Colombia’s ambassador to Canada from November 2018 to March 2020. Prior, he was a member of the House of Representatives serving a four-year term. Most recently, he was a counsellor to Colombia’s President, Ivan Duque serving the President until last month. I got to know Federico while he was in Ottawa and learned we share many of the same interests. Not only is his home country a powerhouse when it comes to producing world-class road cyclists, which we talked a lot about, but his outlook on politics, government, and society are a lot like mine. We discussed his time in Canada, what’s like being a younger diplomat and his perspective on Canada. ...
The questions you ask are more important than the answers you get. I think that should be the mantra of every public opinion researcher and consumer of polls. More important, good researchers must be inquisitive, open-minded, and prepared to understand and appreciate the true nature of the human being who is about to be tasked with completing your questionnaire. My guest this week on inFocus knows a thing or two about writing survey questionnaires. She wrote a book about it. Dr. Annie Pettit is a public opinion and market researcher with more than 20 years experience working with some of the leading research agencies in Canada. Dr. Pettit has a PhD in psychology from York University where she specialized in online survey data quality. She currently consults for a range of traditional and technology research suppliers, is a member of the Canadian Research Insights Council Standards Committee, and is chair of the Canadian ISO standards committee. She’s also the author of the book “People Aren’t Robots: A practical guide to the psychology and technique of questionnaire design” published in 2016. She joined me this week to talk about asking questions, writing questionnaires, and why this step in the research process is so important. ...
