Absent Mandate: Strategies and Choices in Canadian Elections

"Absent Mandate follows a long tradition of examining continuity and change in the Canadian electorate. A first-rate group of authors updates trends during recent decades and the role of partisanship, issues, and performance in voting behaviour and campaigns. Essential reading for students of elections and voting behaviour, campaigns, and Canadian politics, this edition brings developments into the twenty-first century."

Pippa Norris, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"In Absent Mandate, the authors revisit arguments first presented four decades ago to demonstrate how they continue to account for the volatility commonly found in Canadian elections. In doing so, they find a striking continuity in electoral behaviour despite changes in parties, leaders, and policy platforms. The authors argue that the increasingly personalized nature of what have virtually become permanent campaigns in Canada continues to encourage voters to focus on party leadership and the 'team' more than policies when they go to the ballot box."

Joanna Everitt, University of New Brunswick, Saint John