Conventional Choices?
320 pages, 6 1/4 x 9 1/4
12 b&w illustrations, 56 tables
Paperback
Release Date:01 Jan 2008
ISBN:9780774813426
Hardcover
Release Date:21 May 2007
ISBN:9780774813419
PDF
Release Date:01 Jan 2008
ISBN:9780774855914
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Conventional Choices?

Maritime Leadership Politics, 1971–2003

UBC Press
Selecting a leader is a momentous and defining choice for a political
party. Leaders symbolize their party and are a primary factor in
election outcomes. While much is known about the selection of national
party leaders, less is known about the provincial selection process,
particularly in the Maritimes. Breaking new ground, Conventional
Choices
examines twenty-five different leadership elections in
three maritime provinces. The analysis draws on an extraordinarily rich
data set spanning thirty-two years to explore the backgrounds,
attitudes, and motivations of those who select party leaders. It is an
impressive study that offers fresh insights into leadership selection
and Maritime party politics.

Awards

  • 2008, Shortlisted - Donald Smiley Book Prize, Canadian Political Science Association
A monumental achievement of impeccable scholarship. Conventional Choices combines astute quantitative analysis of a remarkably wide-ranging data set with a thorough familiarity with the secondary literature of Maritime (and Canadian) politics and an encyclopaedic culling of newspaper sources. The analysis is never less than sure-footed and the conclusions are insightful. It will take its place among the key contributions to Maritime politics and to the study of leadership conventions. Graham White, author of Cabinets and First Ministers
Ian Stewart is a professor of political science atAcadia University and author of Roasting Chestnuts: The Mythologyof Maritime Political Culture. David K. Stewartis a professor of political science at the University of Calgary andauthor of Quasi-Democracy? Parties and Leadership Selection inAlberta.

Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments

1 Choosing Leaders

2 The Conventions

3 From J. Buchanan to A. Buchanan: Candidates and Voters

4 Tourists or Partisans? Political Background and ElectorEngagement

5 Leadership Election Support Patterns: Friends and Neighbours?

6 Town versus Country: Urban Rural Divisions

7 Brothers and Sisters? Gender-Based Voting at Party Conventions

8 Inter- and Intraparty Attitudinal Differences

9 Rebels without a Cause? Supporters of Fringe Candidates

10 Going My Way? "Delivering" Votes after the FirstBallot

11 Prince Edward Island and the Garden Myth

12 New Brunswick: The Politics of Language

13 Nova Scotia: The Challenge of Social Democracy

14 The End of the Affair? Political Scientists and the DelegatedConvention

15 Conclusion

Appendix: Leadership Election Profiles for Nova Scotia, NewBrunswick, and Prince Edward Island

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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