Recent research in the United States has found that municipal governments are responsive to the ideological complexion of their cities even in the absence of partisan elections. In this paper, I test for the presence of party match—a match between the partisan character of a district and the partisanship of its municipal representative—in Canada, where municipal elections are distinctively non-partisan. Using new data on district-level party support and the partisanship of Canadian municipal politicians, I find clear evidence for party match. This match is equally likely in at-large and ward elections, partisan and non-partisan elections, and large and small cities. I thus argue that partisan and ideological representation is an important and widespread feature of Canadian municipal politics. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories of municipal representation and the role of ideology in municipal politics.
AlexanderAlan. 1972. “The Institutional and Role Perceptions of Local Aldermen.”Lakehead University Review5 (1): 38–54.
2.
AndersonJames D.1972. “Nonpartisan Urban Politics in Canadian Cities.” In Emerging Party Politics in Urban Canada, edited by MassonJack K.AndersonJames D., 5–25. Toronto: McLelland/Stewart.
3.
BarberBenjamin. 2013. If Mayors Ruled the World. New Haven: Yale University Press.
4.
BroockmanDavid E.SkovronChristopher. 2018. “Bias in Perceptions of Public Opinion among Political Elites.”American Political Science Review112 (3): 542–63.
5.
BurnettCraig M.2019. “Parties as an Organizational Force on Nonpartisan City Councils.”Party Politics25 (4): 594–608.
6.
CarenNeal. 2007. “Big City, Big Turnout? Electoral Participation in American Cities.”Journal of Urban Affairs29 (1): 31–46.
7.
CarsonJamie L.EngstromErik J.RobertsJason M.2007. “Candidate Quality, the Personal Vote, and the Incumbency Advantage in Congress.”American Political Science Review101 (2): 289–301.
8.
ClarksonStephen. 1972. “The New City Politics – A Reply to Old Cliches.” In Emerging Party Politics in Urban Canada, edited by MassonJack K.AndersonJames D., 62–5. Toronto: McClelland/Stewart.
9.
CoutureJeromeBreuxSandraKoopRoyce. 2018. “Political Accountability and Responsiveness: What Is the Role of Municipal Political Parties?” In Accountability and Responsiveness at the Municipal Level: Views from Canada. 2nd ed., edited by BreuxSandraCoutureJerome, 76–104. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
10.
Crowder-MeyerMelodyGadarianShana KushnerTrounstineJessica. 2019. “Voting Can Be Hard, Information Helps.”Urban Affairs Review56 (1): 124–53.
11.
de Benedictis-KessnerJustin. 2017. “Off-Cycle and Out of Office: Election Timing and the Incumbency Advantage.”Journal of Politics80 (1): 119-32.
12.
de Benedictis-KessnerJustinWarshawChristopher. 2016. “Mayoral Partisanship and Municipal Fiscal Policy.”Journal of Politics78 (4): 1124–38.
13.
de Benedictis-KessnerJustinWarshawChristopher. 2020. “Politics in Forgotten Governments: The Partisan Composition of County Legislatures and County Fiscal Policies.”Journal of Politics82 (2): 460-75.
14.
DesposatoScott W.PetrocikJohn R.2003. “The Variable Incumbency Advantage: New Voters, Redistricting, and the Personal Vote.”American Journal of Political Science47 (1): 18–32.
15.
EinsteinKatherine LevineGlickDavid M.2018. “Mayors, Partisanship, and Redistribution: Evidence Directly from U.S. Mayors.”Urban Affairs Review54 (1): 74–106.
16.
EinsteinKatherine LevineKoganVladimir. 2016. “Pushing the City Limits: Policy Responsiveness in Municipal Government.”Urban Affairs Review52 (1): 3–32.
17.
FerreiraFernandoGyourkoJoseph. 2009. “Do Political Parties Matter? Evidence from U.S. Cities.”Quarterly Journal of Economics124 (1): 399–422.
18.
FischelWilliam A.2005. The Homevoter Hypothesis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
19.
FowlerAnthony. 2016. “What Explains Incumbent Success? Disentangling Selection on Party, Selection on Candidate Characteristics, and Office-Holding Benefits.”Quarterly Journal of Political Science11 (3): 313–38.
20.
GelmanAndrewKingGary. 1990. “Estimating Incumbency Advantage without Bias.”American Journal of Political Science34 (4): 1142–64.
21.
HajnalZoltanTrounstineJessica. 2014. “What Underlies Urban Politics? Race, Class, Ideology, Partisanship, and the Urban Vote.”Urban Affairs Review50 (1): 63–99.
22.
HolmanMirya R.LayJ. Celeste. 2020. “Are You Picking Up What I Am Laying Down? Ideology in Low-Information Elections.”Urban Affairs Review. Published electronically March7, 2020. doi:10.1177/1078087420908933.
23.
JuenkeEric GonzalezShahParu. 2016. “Demand and Supply: Racial and Ethnic Minority Candidates in White Districts.”Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics1 (1): 60–90.
24.
KaplanHarold. 1967. Urban Political Systems: A Functional Analysis of Metro Toronto. New York: Columbia University Press.
25.
LeeFrances E.2009. Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
LightbodyJames. 1999. “Finding the Trolls Under Your Bridge: The New Case for Party Politics in Canadian Cities.”Journal of Canadian Studies34 (1): 172–83.
27.
LucasJack.2019. “The Size and Sources of Municipal Incumbency Advantage in Canada.”Urban Affairs Review. Published electronically October 25, 2019. doi:10.1177/1078087419879234.
MassonJackLeSageEdward C.1994. Alberta’s Local Governments: Politics and Democracy. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.
30.
McGregorR. MichaelMooreAaron A.StephensonLaura B.2016. “Political Attitudes and Behaviour in a Non-Partisan Environment: Toronto 2014.”Canadian Journal of Political Science49 (2): 311–33.
31.
OliverJ. Eric. 2012. Local Elections and the Politics of Small-Scale Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
32.
OndercinHeather L.FultonSarah A.2019. “Bargain Shopping: How Candidate Sex Lowers the Cost of Voting.”Politics and Gender16 (3): 711–37.
33.
PetersonPaul. 1981. City Limits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
34.
PrenerChristopherRevordCharles. 2019. “Areal: An R Package for Areal Weighted Interpolation.”Journal of Open Source Software4 (37): 1221.
35.
SancesMichael W.2018. “Ideology and Vote Choice in U.S. Mayoral Elections: Evidence from Facebook Surveys.”Political Behavior40 (3): 737–62.
36.
SchaffnerBrian F.WrightGerald C.2002. “The Influence of Party: Evidence from the State Legislatures.”American Political Science Review96 (2): 367–79.
37.
TausanovitchChrisWarshawChristopher. 2013. “Measuring Constituent Policy Preferences in Congress, State Legislatures, and Cities.”Journal of Politics75 (2): 330–42.
38.
TausanovitchChrisWarshawChristopher. 2014. “Representation in Municipal Government.”American Political Science Review108 (3): 605–41.
39.
TennantPaul. 1980. “Vancouver Civic Politics, 1929–1980.”BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly46 (1): 3–27.
40.
TrounstineJessica. 2010. “Representation and Accountability in Cities.”Annual Review of Political Science13 (1): 407–23.
41.
TrounstineJessica. 2011. “Evidence of a Local Incumbency Advantage.”Legislative Studies Quarterly36 (6): 255–80.
42.
VolkensAndreaKrauseWernerLehmannPolaMatthießTheresMerzNicolasRegelSvenWeßelsBernhard. 2019. The Manifesto Data Collection. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung.
43.
WarshawChristopher. 2019. “Local Elections and Representation in the United States.”Annual Review of Political Science22 (1): 1–19.
44.
WeissbergRobert. 1978. “Collective vs. Dyadic Representation in Congress.”American Political Science Review72 (2): 535–47.
45.
WelchSusanBledsoeTimothy. 1990. Urban Reform and Its Consequences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
