Stanfield Conversations

Tickets are available now for the 2024 Stanfield Conversations event, Wednesday, November 20, 7-9pm, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. Click here for more info and to make reservations.

About the Stanfield Conversations

The Stanfield Conversations is an annual public event which brings together high-profile experts to consider critical challenges to democracy and to explore imaginative and inspiring responses to them. The series builds on the legacy of the Rt. Hon. Robert L. Stanfield, former Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party. The series is supported by the Friends of the Stanfield Conversations - a group of respected Canadians from across the country, including many prominent practitioners and scholars of democratic politics, led by co-chairs the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark and the Hon. Anne McLellan (former Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister respectively).

The US Election and Democracy’s Global Fate

2024 has been dubbed the Year of Elections, with more of the world’s people participating in nation-wide votes than during any previous year in history. It comes at a time when “democratic backsliding” – the persistent erosion of democratic values and institutions - has become alarmingly widespread. With both electoral outcomes and the quality of democratic processes on trial, attention has gravitated towards the climax of this unprecedented flurry of elections: the contest for the US presidency. What will this election signal for the trajectory of democratic processes worldwide? Will it reflect a decisive tilt towards democratic decline, democratic renewal, or some indeterminate middle ground?  And will it reinforce or reverse the declining standing of the United States among the world’s struggling community of democracies? This year’s Stanfield Conversation, taking place two weeks after the US presidential vote and featuring Globe and Mail international affairs columnist Doug Saunders and McGill University Canada Research Chair Debra Thompson, promises a timely and illuminating assessment of these prospects. This year's guest moderator will be Piya Chattopadhyay, the host of CBC’s The Sunday Magazine.  

Stanfield Fellow

The Stanfield Fellow for 2024 is Rachael Johnstone. Prof. Johnstone is an expert on Canadian politics, public policy, and law. To date, her research has focused primarily on reproductive rights, exploring the ways they have been shaped through federalism, the Charter, public policy, and social movement activity. Most recently, she has begun exploring reproductive politics as it is experienced by politicians themselves through a project on family-friendly legislatures, which asks what family-friendly legislatures can and should look like.

Master Class

Each year, the Stanfield Fellow hosts a Master Class for graduate students, providing a unique opportunity for small-group discussions with the panelists from the Stanfield Conversations. This year, the graduate cohort is excited to engage with Debra Thompson and Doug Saunders. We are grateful for the support of the Trudeau Foundation, which has enabled us to extend this event to students from other Atlantic Canadian Universities and Trudeau Scholars.