Jared Wesley

Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Alberta
I am a “pracademic” -- a practicing political scientist -- whose career path has taken me from government boardrooms to university classrooms. Prior to joining the Department of Political Science, I served in various senior management roles in the Government of Alberta, including as Director of Learning and Development Policy (Public Service Commission), Senior Operations Manager (Executive Council), and Director of Intergovernmental Relations (Executive Council). I am also Vice Chair of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) Edmonton Regional Group, helping to build bridges between academics and public policy professionals throughout Canada.

Research
My research and teaching revolves around the politics of bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy of politics. This includes:

- elections / electioneering
- comparative public policy
- intergovernmental relations
- political acumen / acuity

I also teach and publish in Canadian politics, provincial parties and elections, and research methodology, with a particular focus on the study of political culture, and Alberta parties & elections.

My major ongoing research projects include:

- Alberta Provincial Election Project: a survey and social media study surrounding the 2019 provincial election
- Alberta Political Culture Project: an ethnographic study of the unspoken norms and values underpinning the province's politics
- PoliVolume: a social media study of provincial and federal elections in Canada
- Coordinating Federalism: a comparative analysis of the national policy-making influence of the Council of the Federation and National Governors' Association
- The Politics of Pot: a study of cannabis legalization in the Canadian provinces
- Party Switchers: a study of floor-crossing in the Canadian provinces
- Public Servants' Role: a study of the role of public servants in 21st century democracy
- I am also co-authoring The Public Servant's Guide to Government in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2019).

I have served as principal investigator of the SSHRC-funded "Comparative Provincial Elections Project", which studied provincial elections in every jurisdiction between 2011 and 2015. In addition to my books -- Code Politics: Campaigns and Cultures on the Canadian Prairies (UBC Press, 2011); Disengaged?: Fixed Date, Democracy, and Understanding the 2011 Manitoba Election (co-edited with Andrea Rounce, University of Regina Press); Big Worlds: Politics and Elections in the Canadian Provinces and Territories (editor, University of Toronto Press, 2015), and Inside Canadian Politics (co-author with Alex Marland, Oxford University Press, 2016) -- I have published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Canadian Studies, Prairie Forum, and several recent books.