Federal election and party politics: York U experts available for media opportunities
York University experts are available to comment on the upcoming Canadian federal election from party strategies and polling to campaign issues, including immigration, border security and trade relations.
Electoral strategy, polling and voter sentiment
Dennis Pilon, a professor of political science and Chair of the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LA&PS), is focused on issues of democratization and democratic reform in Western countries. In 2007 he published The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada’s Electoral System, in 2009 he co-edited British Columbia Politics and Government, and in 2013 he published Wrestling with Democracy: Voting Systems as Politics in the Twentieth Century West. Pilon has acted as a consultant on election issues for legal firms, political parties, trade unions, community groups, and the Auditor General of Canada. He is a member of the National Advisory Board of Fair Vote Canada, a citizens’ group focused on gaining more proportional methods of voting for Canadian elections, and sits on the editorial board of Canadian Dimension magazine.
Pilon is available to comment on:
- election administration
- electoral strategy
- political parties, including party branding and strategies
- voter reactions
- polling
- election results from the perspective of voters
Public policy proposals and Canada-U.S. relations
Ian Roberge is a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration in LA&PS. His research interests are public administration and public policy, including bad policy and digital public administration as well as financial services sector policy. He previously worked on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing policy, and foresight in government. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book Ineffective Policies: Causes and Consequences of Bad Policy Decisions at Bristol University Press (April 2025), as well as the recently released Routledge International Handbook of Public Administration and Digital Governance.
Roberge is available for interviews in both English and French. He can offer political analysis and comment on:
- federal politics
- federal-provincial relations
- the federal election campaign
- Canada-U.S. relations
National identity and regional tensions in the election
Colin Coates, professor of Canadian Studies at York’s Glendon College, is an expert on the history of nationalism in Canada. He received the Governor General's International Award for Canadian Studies from the International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) in recognition of his work in the field, as well as a Certificate of Merit from the ICCS. He has researched the trade of dairy products between Canada and the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when American tariffs restricted Canadian access to southern markets.
Coates is available for interviews in English and French. He can comment on:
- the role national identity is playing in the election campaign
- how regional identities and tensions could influence the federal election
- the history of Canadian attempts to expand into other markets when Americans have raised tariffs in the past
Employment and labour policies, retirement, pensions and income insecurity
Thomas Klassen is a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration in LA&PS. His focus is on Canadian social and labour policy, including employment, and income security (unemployment insurance and pensions). A particular area of expertise is labour market policy, including the transition from school to work and the role of training and education.
He is available to speak on:
- employment and labour in Canada, including labour market and income security policies
- retirement and pensions
- dynamics of the upcoming federal election
- Canada-U.S. relations
Energy, environment and climate change: policy and Canada-U.S. relations
Mark Winfield is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, co-chair of the Faculty's Sustainable Energy Initiative, and coordinator of the Joint Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor program offered in conjunction with Osgoode Hall Law School. He has published articles, book chapters and reports on a range of topics from climate change and environment to energy law and policy in Canada and North America. He is a co-editor of the book Sustainable Energy Transitions in Canada. He has taught U.S. Government and Politics in the past, and is currently co-editing a volume on carbon federalism in Canada, the U.S., Australia and the European Union.
Key areas of expertise:
- energy and climate change policy
- environment and natural resources policy
- critical minerals and impact assessment
- Canada-U.S. energy trade and relations
- electricity, nuclear energy and Ontario politics
Patriotism and immigration, and changes in U.S. policy
Yvonne Su is an assistant professor in the Department of Equity Studies in LA&PS and the director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University. Su is a specialist in forced migration, climate change-induced displacement and queer migration. She has worked extensively with vulnerable communities in Southeast Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, including refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, trans sex workers, indigenous communities, and 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. She has published 26 peer-reviewed works in journals like Third World Quarterly, Journal of Gender Studies, and International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction as well as more than 40 opinion pieces, newspaper articles and academic blogs in The Washington Post, The Conversation, and The National Observer.
Su is available to comment on:
- Canadian patriotism and immigration issues
- the Canada-U.S. border
- immigration, temporary migration and refugees
- politics related to international students, and the issues facing them
- changes in U.S. policy, including mass deportations
Border security and surveillance, and migration
Petra Molnar is a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in border technologies. She is the associate director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University and is a faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She is the author of The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, which was a finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards in Nonfiction.
Molnar is available for interviews in both English and French. She can comment on:
- border security and surveillance
- the role of private companies
- migration issues in general
For experts available to comment on trade, tariffs and the economy, see: https://www.yorku.ca/news/2025/03/13/york-experts-trump-tariffs-trade-agreements/