Revisiting Local Campaign Effects: An Experiment Involving Literature Mail Drops in the 2007 Ontario Election

An invariant feature of constituency election campaigns is the literature mail drop, usually a one-page leaflet or card left at the door profiling the candidate and appealing for electoral support. In this article, we report on a field experiment designed to assess the effects of such mail drops. The experiment was conducted during the 2007 Ontario provincial election campaign in the constituency of Cambridge and entailed distributing literature for the Green party candidate in that constituency. After randomly assigning constituency polls to treatment and control groups, and delivering the Green candidate’s partisan literature only to the selected treatment group polls, we compared the candidate’s support levels in the treated polls with those in the control group. Our research detected a modest effect associated with the literature drop. The effect was largely limited to constituency neighbourhoods fitting at least part of the Green party’s traditional demographic, that is, those with higher than average socio-economic status

The 2007 Provincial Election and Electoral System Referendum in Ontario

Ontario’s general election in Oct. 10, 2007, was unprecedented for several reasons. The election was held on a date fixed by legislation and not one set by the premier or his caucus, something new to Ontario and relatively new to Canadian politics. Turnout declined to 53%, the lowest ever in Ontario history. The incumbent Liberals won a second consecutive majority government, something the party had not achieved since 1937. And finally, the election featured a referendum question that asked voters in Ontario to approve reforms to the electoral system, a proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected. This article explores each of the above-stated elements as they unfolded in the election

Derby Fisheries, Individual Quotas, and Transition in the Fish Processing Industry

Processors adapt to the pulse of landings in derby fisheries by investing in large-scale facilities capable of preserving and storing fish products. In fisheries where the pulse of landings suppresses the ability of processors to meet consumer demand for fresh product, the imposition of individual quota (IQ) systems transforms the associated fish processing industry. The cost of fresh fish processing is generally lower and more malleable than that for preserved fish, and consumers may pay a price premium for fresh product, which creates an opportunity for entry by fresh-fish processors and results in higher equilibrium ex-vessel prices. Incumbent firms are likely to experience an economic dislocation due to a diminished value of nonmalleable capital used to preserve and store fish products. Our paper generalizes and provides a modeling framework for the observed changes in the British Columbian halibut harvester/processor industry complex following the introduction of an IQ system.Derby fishery, individual quotas, pulse of landings, fish processing, fresh fish, preserved fish, product forms, ex-vessel price, wholesale fish price, processing capital, malleability, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q13, Q22,

AFS Membership Study

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Surface pinning of fluctuating charge order: an "extraordinary" surface phase transition

We study the mean-field theory of charge-density wave (CDW) order in a layered system, including the effect of the long-range Coulomb interaction and of screening by uncondensed electrons. We particularly focus on the conditions necessary for an ``extraordinary'' transition, in which the surface orders at a higher temperature, and is more likely to be commensurate, than the bulk. We interpret recent experiments on NaCCOC as indicating the presence of commensurate CDW at the surface that is not present in the bulk. More generally, we show that poor screening of the Coulomb interaction tends to stabilize incommensurate order, possibly explaining why the CDW order in LSCO and NbSe2 remains incommensurate to T -> 0, despite the small magnitude of the incommensurability.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, 31 references; 1 new figure and minor editing of the tex

Trends in antibacterial resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated in the USA: update from PROTEKT US Years 1–4

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