School of Public Policy appoints Dr. Anthony Sayers Director of Canadian Governance Policy

The School of Public Policy (SPP) at the University of Calgary is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Anthony Sayers as the Director of Canadian Governance Policy.

Dr. Sayers is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary and a prolific researcher and writer. His research has been funded by various agencies including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has contributed to many peer-reviewed academic journals and books and is the author of Parties, Candidates and Campaigns in Canadian Elections.  He is completing a co-authored monograph entitled The End of Solitude: Competitive Party Politics in Alberta.

He is the author of the Canadian Elections Database, which has all federal, provincial, and territorial general election results since 1867.  Dr. Sayers is a member of the Canadian Political Science Association, the American Political Science Association and the Prairie Political Science Association, which he guided through incorporation while its president in 2012-13.

“In a rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable world, the quality of Canadian governance will be central to our achieving first class social, economic, and security policy outcomes,” said Dr. Sayers, who holds both a Ph. D and Master of Arts of political science from the University of British Columbia and undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Western Australia.

Canadian Governance Policy is a new area of focus for the School of Public Policy.

“Canadian governance — the decision-making processes, organizational structures, how the provincial governments work together and, in turn, how they work with the federal government — has both challenges and opportunities. This is particularly relevant in this time of economic and security uncertainty with interprovincial trade barriers being the most obvious example. All of that, plus accountability in the country’s governments and public sector — combine to make this an obvious new, but key, area of focus for the School,” said Martha Hall Findlay, Director and James S. and Barbara A. Palmer Chair of the School of Public Policy.

Since last fall, the School has named  Dr. Jennifer Zwicker as Director of Health and Social Policy, Carlo Dade as Director for International Policy and Dr. Trevor Tombe as Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy. They join Dr. Guillaume L’hermie,  Director of the Simpson Centre for Food and Agricultural Policy.