David McGrane, Associate Professor of Political Studies, St. Thomas
More College, University of Saskatchewan
David
McGrane’s research focuses on the activity of the federal NDP
since 2000 and the history of social democracy in Quebec and Saskatchewan.
Dr. McGrane has established an expertise on Saskatchewan social
democracy through publishing several articles and book chapters
on the subject. This body of research focuses on feminism and social
democracy in Saskatchewan; western alienation and the Saskatchewan
CCF-NDP; a comparison of the public policies of the Romanow and
Calvert governments; and analysis of the NDP’s campaigns in
the 2007 and 2011 Saskatchewan provincial election.
Dr. McGrane has published a book with McGill-Queen’s
University Press entitled Remaining Loyal: Social Democracy
in Quebec and Saskatchewan. The central argument of this book
is that, while third way social democrats in these provinces did
alter certain social democratic ideas, they ultimately remained
loyal to the original spirit of social democracy. Using archival
research of government documents, it proves this argument through
a detailed description of the social and economic policies of the
Parti Québécois and Saskatchewan CCF-NDP governments
as well an analysis of the social movements who were ideological
inspirations to these governments. Besides being the first systematic
comparison of social democracy in Quebec and Saskatchewan, the book
argues points out continuities between third way and traditional
social democracy that have not appreciated in European literature
on the subject and makes an original contribution to mapping out
how ideology can structure provincial public policy in Canada.
Dr. McGrane also has a book chapter in The Canadian Federal
Election of 2011 entitled “Political Marketing and the
NDP’s Historic Breakthrough”, is currently the only
academic account of the federal NDP’s surprising success in
the 2011 federal election. The chapter broke new ground by applying
political marketing theory to the federal NDP’s campaign.
It applied the political marketing theories of Robert Ormrod, Neil
Butler, and Patrick Collins to the federal NDP’s 2011campaign
using a combination of interviews with party strategists and the
analysis of NDP French and English advertising and news releases
using Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis software (CAQDAS).
It argues that that the NDP’s historic breakthrough in the
2011 election should be partly attributed to its political marketing.
Using political marketing theory, it shows that the NDP was primarily
a competitor-oriented “market follower” in English Canada
and a voter-oriented “market challenger” in Quebec.
Bibliography of Dr. McGrane’s Research on Social Democracy
David McGrane, Remaining Loyal: Social Democracy in Quebec
and Saskatchewan, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University
Press, 2014.
David McGrane, Stephen White, Loleen Berdahl, Michael Atkinson,
"Leadership, Partisan Loyalty, and Issue Salience: The 2011
Provincial Election in Saskatchewan", Canadian Political
Science Review, Volume 7, Number 1, (September 2013), pp. 1-12.
David McGrane, "Political Marketing and the NDP's Historic
Breakthrough" in The Canadian Federal Election of 2011,
Jon Pammett and Christopher Doran (eds.), Toronto: Dundurn Publishing,
2011, pp. 77-110.
David McGrane, "Balancing Conflicting Purposes: Saskatchewan
Taxation Policy from 1991 to 2011" in New Directions in
Saskatchewan Public Policy, David McGrane (ed.), Regina Canadian
Plains Research Centre Press, 2011, pp. 91-120.
David McGrane, “A Mixed Record: Gender and Saskatchewan Social
Democracy”, Journal of Canadian Studies, Volume 42,
Number 1, (Winter 2008), pp. 179-203.
David McGrane, “The 2007 Provincial Election in Saskatchewan”,
Canadian Political Science Review, Volume 2, Number 1,
(March/April 2008), pp. 64-71.
David McGrane, “Which Third Way? A Comparison of the Romanow
and Calvert NDP Governments from 1991 to 2007” in Saskatchewan
Politics: Crowding the Centre, Howard Leeson (ed.), Regina:
Canadian Plains Research Centre Press, 2008, pp. 143-164.
David McGrane, “Western Alienation or Mere Critique of Federal
Government Policies?: Saskatchewan Social Democrats’ View
of Federalism from 1900 to Present”, International Journal
of Canadian Studies, Volume 32, (2005), pp. 205-235.
David McGrane. “Joesph W. Burton”, “Don Mitchell”
and “Andrew Thomson” in Saskatchewan Politicians:
Lives Past and Present, edited by Brett Quiring, Regina: Canadian
Plains Research Centre. 2004, pp. 34-35, 169-170 & 228.