News and Events

Presenter Ross Curtis with the 2010 Jack Ebbels Memorial Scholarship recipients, Nicholas Buncic and Avery Kelly

Mark Jarvis shares win of prestigious Donner Prize
Toronto: Tuesday May 1, 2012 - The winner of the prestigious Donner Prize, an annual award for the best public policy book by a Canadian, was announced this evening by Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, at a gala awards dinner at the Carlu hosted by Don Newman, Chairman of Canada 2020.

Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government by Peter Aucoin, Mark D. Jarvis and Lori Turnbull (Emond Montgomery Publications) was awarded the $50,000 prize.

In Democratizing the Constitution, the authors argue that Canada's time-honoured system of responsible government is failing us. The principle by which the executive must be accountable to the people's elected representatives is slipping away, and our constitution and its unwritten conventions no longer provide effective constraints on a prime minister's power. Democratizing the Constitution examines recent history and ongoing controversies as it makes the case for restoring power to where it belongs - with the people's elected representatives in Parliament.

Peter Aucoin was Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Public Administration at Dalhousie University; he passed away on July 7, 2011. Mark D. Jarvis is a doctoral candidate at the University of Victoria. Lori Turnbull is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Dalhousie University. Click here to read more.

David Good testifies before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Click here to read his statement. Click here to read the full proceedings.

Lindsay Tedds in The Winnipeg Free Press
BC man facing prison follows long history of tax protesters. Russell Porisky of BC is facing prison for preaching a bizarre theory that argues citizens don't have to pay taxes, reports the Canadian Press. Lindsay Tedds comments in this story, picked up by several news outlets including the Winnipeg Free Press, The Daily Courier (Kelowna) and Global Edmonton, that Porisky's theory has absolutely no grounding in the law. The Winnipeg Free Press

David Good in The Globe and Mail
Bonuses set off storm of criticism - David Good, a former assistant deputy minister in Ottawa who now teaches in UVic's public administration school, was quoted on Friday about Translink executive bonuses.  Globe and Mail

David Good in The Hill Times
Don't expect federal spending to increase - The federal government's spending estimates, recently released for the upcoming budget year, project cuts to several departments even without including the coming billions of dollars in operating cuts. UVic's David Good provides comment for an article in The Hill Times

Professor John Langford was co-rapporteur with Leslie Seidle at a very interesting Forum of Federations roundtable on joint service delivery (October, 2011). See: http://www.forumfed.org/en/events/event.php?id=709. The PowerPoint presentations available at the bottom of the page will be of great interest to all the School's students.

Distinguished Lawyer Named LAM Chair in Law and Public Policy
A nationally recognized expert in collaborative dispute resolution, M. Jerry McHale, Q.C.will join the Faculty of Human and Social Development and the Faculty of Law for a two-year term to provide expertise and leadership in the field of dispute resolution. His experience will benefit students studying and researching in this area, particularly those enrolled in the Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution (MADR) program in the School of Public Administration and the Juris Doctor program in the Faculty of Law. To read the full media release click here.