David McGrane, Associate Professor of Political Studies, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan

David McGrane’s research focuses on the activity of the federal NDP since 2000 and the history of social democracy in Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Dr. McGrane has established an expertise on Saskatchewan social democracy through publishing several articles and book chapters on the subject. This body of research focuses on feminism and social democracy in Saskatchewan; western alienation and the Saskatchewan CCF-NDP; a comparison of the public policies of the Romanow and Calvert governments; and analysis of the NDP’s campaigns in the 2007 and 2011 Saskatchewan provincial election.

Dr. McGrane has published a book with McGill-Queen’s University Press entitled Remaining Loyal: Social Democracy in Quebec and Saskatchewan. The central argument of this book is that, while third way social democrats in these provinces did alter certain social democratic ideas, they ultimately remained loyal to the original spirit of social democracy. Using archival research of government documents, it proves this argument through a detailed description of the social and economic policies of the Parti Québécois and Saskatchewan CCF-NDP governments as well an analysis of the social movements who were ideological inspirations to these governments. Besides being the first systematic comparison of social democracy in Quebec and Saskatchewan, the book argues points out continuities between third way and traditional social democracy that have not appreciated in European literature on the subject and makes an original contribution to mapping out how ideology can structure provincial public policy in Canada.

Dr. McGrane also has a book chapter in The Canadian Federal Election of 2011 entitled “Political Marketing and the NDP’s Historic Breakthrough”, is currently the only academic account of the federal NDP’s surprising success in the 2011 federal election. The chapter broke new ground by applying political marketing theory to the federal NDP’s campaign. It applied the political marketing theories of Robert Ormrod, Neil Butler, and Patrick Collins to the federal NDP’s 2011campaign using a combination of interviews with party strategists and the analysis of NDP French and English advertising and news releases using Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis software (CAQDAS). It argues that that the NDP’s historic breakthrough in the 2011 election should be partly attributed to its political marketing. Using political marketing theory, it shows that the NDP was primarily a competitor-oriented “market follower” in English Canada and a voter-oriented “market challenger” in Quebec.

Bibliography of Dr. McGrane’s Research on Social Democracy

David McGrane, Remaining Loyal: Social Democracy in Quebec and Saskatchewan, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.

David McGrane, Stephen White, Loleen Berdahl, Michael Atkinson, "Leadership, Partisan Loyalty, and Issue Salience: The 2011 Provincial Election in Saskatchewan", Canadian Political Science Review, Volume 7, Number 1, (September 2013), pp. 1-12.

David McGrane, "Political Marketing and the NDP's Historic Breakthrough" in The Canadian Federal Election of 2011, Jon Pammett and Christopher Doran (eds.), Toronto: Dundurn Publishing, 2011, pp. 77-110.

David McGrane, "Balancing Conflicting Purposes: Saskatchewan Taxation Policy from 1991 to 2011" in New Directions in Saskatchewan Public Policy, David McGrane (ed.), Regina Canadian Plains Research Centre Press, 2011, pp. 91-120.

David McGrane, “A Mixed Record: Gender and Saskatchewan Social Democracy”, Journal of Canadian Studies, Volume 42, Number 1, (Winter 2008), pp. 179-203.

David McGrane, “The 2007 Provincial Election in Saskatchewan”, Canadian Political Science Review, Volume 2, Number 1, (March/April 2008), pp. 64-71.

David McGrane, “Which Third Way? A Comparison of the Romanow and Calvert NDP Governments from 1991 to 2007” in Saskatchewan Politics: Crowding the Centre, Howard Leeson (ed.), Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre Press, 2008, pp. 143-164.

David McGrane, “Western Alienation or Mere Critique of Federal Government Policies?: Saskatchewan Social Democrats’ View of Federalism from 1900 to Present”, International Journal of Canadian Studies, Volume 32, (2005), pp. 205-235.

David McGrane. “Joesph W. Burton”, “Don Mitchell” and “Andrew Thomson” in Saskatchewan Politicians: Lives Past and Present, edited by Brett Quiring, Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre. 2004, pp. 34-35, 169-170 & 228.

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