Political Science

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Political Science.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Browsing Political Science by Author "Henstra, Daniel"

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    Corporate Power and Changes to Provincial Environmental Regulation During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (University of Waterloo, 2024-03-14) LaBrash, Danielle; Clapp, Jennifer; Henstra, Daniel
    How have Canada’s largest oil producing provinces altered key environmental policies since the onset of COVID-19, in response to the dual pressures of an oil sector in distress and the imperative to reduce emissions? While regulatory changes have been reported in the media, they have not yet been systemically reviewed or explained; this project aims to fill that gap. Oil markets went into crisis in early 2020 as oil prices plummeted following an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the global community has entered into a critical decade in climate history: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that a sharp reduction in emissions over the next decade is needed to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Government policy interventions in this moment are both determining the future of the oil sector and defining possibilities for climate change mitigation. This thesis analyzes changes to regulations made by the oil-producing provinces of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador at this critical moment. Conducting a full review of provincial regulatory changes during the pandemic, I find that in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic Canada’s oil provinces demonstrated a clear pattern of supporting the oil sector by weakening provincial environmental regulation surrounding the sector. Regulatory changes observed in 2020 can be explained in part by considering corporate power, and strategies used by oil corporations to influence government, in each province. These changes to provincial regulatory frameworks shape Canada’s response to the ongoing economic and climate crises, and further expose Canadians to both the risks of climate change and the economic risk of an oil sector in long-term decline.
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    Profiling Municipal Decision Agendas: A Pilot Study of Southern Ontario
    (University of Waterloo, 2018-08-24) Vanhooren, Shanaya; Henstra, Daniel
    Canadian local governments have been consistently described as having a relatively limited role in policymaking. It has been argued in the local government literature that municipalities abide by the mandate imposed by provincial statutes, which primarily includes policies related to property, such as zoning decisions, and services to property, such as fire protection and sewage collection. Other scholars have argued that the role of local governments is expanding. For example, some argue that globalization has increased the importance of local governments and, indeed, there is evidence that local governments are beginning to independently address global problems, such as climate change. Moreover, rising property taxes suggest that municipal governments have an expanding, more demanding policy agenda. This thesis analyzes whether municipal governments are involved in areas of policymaking that are beyond their traditional mandate by conducting a content analysis of the municipal council meeting minutes of three Southern Ontario municipalities from 2015-2017 inclusive. The primary research question is to what extent are municipal councils in Southern Ontario considering policy decisions that are beyond their traditional mandate, as outlined in the local government literature? Municipalities vary greatly in size and previous research demonstrates that size has a significant influence on the scope and content of policymaking. Thus, this thesis also asks: does a municipality’s size influence the scope and substance of policy issues under consideration by the municipal council? The findings suggest that all municipalities, especially small and medium-sized municipalities, address policy areas that are beyond the traditional mandate described in the literature. In fact, over forty percent of all coded policy decisions pertained to issues that are not included in the literature’s characterization of municipal responsibilities. Furthermore, large municipalities address a substantively more diverse set of policy issues than small and medium size municipalities. However, large municipalities are not the only local governments making policies in areas considered traditionally ‘urban’. The findings also emphasize that further research is needed that investigates the function and prominence of constituent policy at the local level, as well as the explanations as to why these trends exist.