ARTS RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

The Liberal government has indicated it won’t reform Canada’s federal electoral system by referendum.

Experts like UBC’s Max Cameron say that Canada’s election laws don’t come out of a charter document and therefore can be changed through legislation. But, Cameron cautions, politicians should be aware of the importance of public support when they try to change the way people vote.

Maclean’s ran a piece on UBC as part of its University Rankings 2016, listing standout programs such as the distributed M.D. program, designed to increase the number of rural and Aboriginal students going into medical careers; and the interdisciplinary Arts One/Science One program. The article also mentioned “cool courses” including Wade Davis’s cultural anthropology introductory course and Ernest Mathijs’s cult cinema overview.

A companion piece focused on the student experience.

China’s overtaking of Canada as the United States’ largest trading partner signals the growing importance of China in the global economy. UBC professor Paul Evans, author of Engaging China: Myth, Aspiration and Strategy in Canadian Policy from Trudeau to Harper, says the transition will drive changes in Canadian consciousness about China’s role globally and in Canada.

“There is no reason to be alarmed by being No. 2,” Evans said. “But it does demonstrate that continental proximity is no longer economic destiny.”

A similar article appeared on BNN.

The return of the long-form census ensures that policy decisions will be based on reason and evidence, according to UBC professor and Liberal advisor Kevin Milligan.

“There was no sensible public policy case for the decision to move away from the mandatory census,” Milligan said. “The replacement cost more and was demonstrably lower quality. Attacking this important institution was simply vandalism.”

The federal cabinet positions given to two B.C. Liberals are “major coups for the province”, says UBC political scientist Richard Johnston.

Jody Wilson-Raybould was named Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada, and Harjit Sajjan was named Minister of National Defence. Both ministries are senior assignments.

A similar story appeared on CBC’s The Current.

Canada’s new Prime Minister faces the task of balancing his country’s relations with the U.S. and the need to support Alberta’s troubled oil industry, according to a TIME article on the Keystone pipeline.

Analysts believe Justin Trudeau will have to soon clarify his environmental policies at the upcoming climate conference in Paris and other international meetings.

“If [Obama] has been pressuring Canada to take stronger actions to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from the tar sands, as a condition for approval, there could be pressure for greater clarity on that issue from the new Liberal government,” said Kathryn Harrison, a political science professor at UBC.

UBC political science professor Max Cameron says Justin Trudeau “clearly wants to be seen as a man of the people” and as a more collaborative leader than Stephen Harper was.

However, Cameron thinks Trudeau’s political honeymoon could last a while as many Canadians were glad to see Harper leave office.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has picked a young, ethnically diverse and gender-equal Cabinet, media outlets reported on Wednesday.

With so many new faces in the Cabinet, rookie mistakes could be made, cautions UBC political science professor Gerald Baier in a Reuters article: “It seems as though the balance is tipped towards youth as opposed grizzled veterans, but to have a few there I think is important and helpful.”

Baier also gave comments to the Globe and Mail.

The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize went to Toronto author Andre Alexis for “Fifteen Dogs.” B.C.’s Annabel Lyon, who teaches in the creative writing program at UBC, won the Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award, which goes to a mid-career writer for a body of work.

A similar story appeared in Metro News.

UBC political science professor Gerald Baier commented on the promises made in B.C. by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, saying B.C. mayors’ priorities would probably be to push for action on the missing aboriginal women file, as well as more local issues such as water treatment, simple infrastructure projects like roads, and housing.

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UBC geographer Daniel Hiebert says neighbourhoods in which a single ethnic group dominates tend to do better than places with a multitude of ethnic backgrounds.

Both types of enclaves could benefit from cross-cultural diversity, but the first type also provides residents with the economic advantages of being near people who share their ethnicity and cultural background.

Three UBC faculty members are on this year’s list of TEDxVancouver speakers: Mohamed Fahmy, journalist in residence; Marina Adshade, who teaches a popular course on the economics of sex; and Lara Boyd, a neurobiologist.

A similar article appeared on MSN.