In October 2013 I was a Visiting Professor to the Graduate Programme of Political Management at Carleton University where I delivered training in political marketing to the graduate students there and subsequently became fellow of the Graduate Programme of Political Management in November.
It was great to visit Canada 4 years after being a keynote and see how political marketing and management had become much more accepted in political discussion. Susan Delacourt’s book Shopping for Votes was being launched whilst I was there and there were some great discussions in the media about it – see http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2410929804/ – and it was wonderful to catch up with Susan face to face after she first interviewed me back in 2009 and we’ve kept in contact on email ever since. My favourite part was meeting so many academics with whom I could have great conversations about politics – Andre Turcotte of course who did all the work to arrange and get funding for my visit; Paul Wilson who helped me connect with politicians and got me a tour of the parliament; Mary Francoli and Susan Harada and Kirsten Kozalanka who met me for lunch and coffee; Josh Greenberg who took time out of his schedule to drive me to Gatineau Park which provided me with a rare moment of peace; and Jonathan Malloy from political science. Thierry Giasson also who came from Montreal for a PhD Defence and joined us for dinner – it was a great chance to celebrate our success with the book Political Marketing in Canada which began during my last visit. I am grateful to them all, and Susan, for giving me such a great time there and inspiring me to keep up the good work!
Below are some more pictures of my visit there.
lees-marshment.org 