Event Details
Athabasca University Press will be celebrating the launch of Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada on June 1 from 3:15 to 4:45 pm. Find us in the Congress Hub at the Café Expo Event Space in the Jack Simpson Gym to chat with Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick, the editors, about the effects of single-resource economies on democracy. Light refreshments will be served.
Book Description
In probing the impact of Alberta’s powerful oil lobby on the health of democracy in the province, the editors of the volume, Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick, and their contributors engage with an ongoing discussion of the erosion of political liberalism in the West. In addition to examining energy policy and issues of government accountability in Alberta, they explore the ramifications of oil dependence in areas such as Aboriginal rights, environmental policy, labour law, women’s equity, urban social policy, and the arts. If, as they argue, reliance on oil has weakened democratic structures in Alberta, then what of Canada as whole, where the short-term priorities of the oil industry continue to shape federal policy? In Alberta, the New Democratic Party is in a position to reverse the democratic deficit that is presently fuelling political and economic inequality. The findings in this book suggest that, to revitalize democracy, provincial and federal leaders alike must find the courage to curb the influence of the oil industry on governance.
Contributors: Ricardo Acuña, Bob Barnetson, Sara Dorow, Josh Evans, Jason Foster, Joy Fraser, Trevor Harrison, Paul Kellogg, Manijeh Mannani, Gabrielle Slowey, Peter (Jay) Smith, and Karen Wall.
