What happens when a pollster becomes a legislator? How does a career exploring and measuring public opinion help serve Canadians as a Senator?
Senator Dr. Donna Dasko was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Trudeau on June 6, 2018.
She is my guest on this episode of inFocus with David Coletto.
Prior to her appointment, she was Senior Vice-President at Environics Research Group where she lead major research studies for federal and provincial governments, private sector clients, and NGOs.
Senator Dasko is also a co-founded and National Chair of Equal Voice, a non-partisan organization aimed at electing more women in Canada.
Senator Dasko joined me on the podcast to discuss her career as a pollster and how her experience has impacted her work as a Senator at the centre of national public policy making.
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. ...
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. ...
Season 2 of inFocus with David Coletto starts on April 12, with American data scientist David Shor. This podcast is all about the intersection of public opinion, politics, and public policy. I had a lot of great feedback on season 1 and I’m excited for what I have lined up on Season 2. This season, I continue to speak with smart and interesting people who spend much of their days exploring why people do and think what they do. I’ll be speaking with David Shor, an American data scientist who worked on Obama’s 2012 campaign and recently got a lot of attention with his analysis of the 2020 campaign and why he tought Donald Trump was GOOD for the Republican Party. I’ll talk climate change with Seth Klein, author of Good War and how public attitudes about climate change seem to be ahead of political leaders. I recently finished reading a fascinating book called Beyond the Red Wall: Why Labour Lost, How the Conservatives Won and What Will Happen Next? By British pollster Deborah Mattinson. She spent weeks in northern England trying to understand why the once-solid Labour region voted Conservative in the 2019 British General Election. I speak with political scientist Jared Wesley about what’s happening in Alberta and interview former Colombian ambassador to Canada Federico Hoyos about his time in Canada and what it taught him about who we are and how we are different. I am also excited to interview Biden’s lead pollster, John Anzalone about that campaign and what it’s like managing the polling for a billion-dollar election campaign. This is just a taste of what I have planned for season 2. Thanks for all the support so far. Please share the podcast ...
