I had the privilege of completing my Legislative Assembly placement with the Canadian Parliamentary Review (CPR)! The CPR is a non-partisan quarterly journal that promotes the study of Canadian parliamentary institutions. I was particularly interested in learning about the process of engaging with such a broad range of contributors, from MPPs, MLA’s, and MP’s, to academic researchers and legislative staff.
During my placement, I worked primarily on helping to lay the foundation for an upcoming theme issue on women parliamentarians. Through this project, I had the unique opportunity to meet with multiple members of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) to gain their perspectives on issues and discussions of significance within the CWP. As a non-partisan network of women parliamentarians, conversations with members were highly insightful and identified potential article topics and roundtable discussions for the future issue. I was also fortunate to interview political science professor and author, Dr. Kate Graham regarding her work on gender representation in politics.
In addition, I had the opportunity to research and write two short-form articles for the “Sketches of Parliament” section of the CPR. One of these articles focused on the legacies of the first Black woman MPP Rosemary Brown, and the first Black woman elected to the House of Commons, Jean Augustine. I also conducted and consolidated preliminary research on small, remote, and fly-in only constituencies across Canada for use in another theme issue.
As my placement comes to a close, I would like to thank Will Stos for the guidance and mentorship. I would also like to extend my thanks to Tiffany Ribeiros and the rest of the Information Services branch for being so welcoming. Finally, I am grateful to the many people who were willing to share their insights with me in various meetings and interviews during my time with CPR. I encourage everyone to check out past issues of the CPR here and keep an eye out for my work in the upcoming issue!
