January 2015 • Faculty of Public Affairs in Review • carleton.ca/fpa

FPA Voices

David ColettoMy Career Path

Elinor SloanField Notes

Joshua GladstoneQuiet listening and the

Northern landscape

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Welcome to FPA VoicesMessage from our Dean

Welcome to the first issue of FPA Voices, an e-magazine celebrating the inspiring people, outstanding programs of study, and groundbreaking research within the Faculty of Public Affairs.

When I arrived at FPA three years ago, I was immediately struck by the sense of intellectual flexibility within the faculty. Researchers with similar interests were sharing ideas, whether they spoke the language of economics or communication studies.

That flexibility is reflected in the lively conversations at our monthly Bagels and Banter and Author Meets Readers events, which are open to everyone, and in the new multi-disciplinary programs being developed within our units.

We hope the stories you read here will become part of the FPA conversation as well, as we give voice to some in our FPA community whom we don’t always hear from: the students and staff who are an integral part of our departments, institutes, and schools.

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Each month, we will profile a faculty member, staff member, or student and highlight their contributions to the Carleton community.

As we recognize the talented, hard-working people in our midst, we are also preparing to celebrate our Faculty’s achievements with the release of the progress report FPA in Motion next month.FPA in Motion will describe the steps all of us have taken over the past year as we move towards a more global and interdisciplinary educational community.

We hope you enjoy this opportunity to get to know the incredible people in FPA a bit better. We welcome your feedback and suggestions!

FPA PeopleJoshua Gladstone, PhD student, SPPA.

Joshua Gladstone spent several years working as a geologist in Nunavut before he discovered his true calling. He is now a PhD candidate in the School of Public Policy and Administration with a specialization in Political Economy.

You were raised in Toronto. What drew you to the North?

My family always appreciated nature and we spent lots of time outside when I was young, so I developed a real interest in and fondness for the outdoors.

That’s why I initially chose to study geology, because I wanted to find a way to have that connection with nature. That led me to a job on a regional mapping project with the Geological Survey of Canada on Baffin Island.

Geology? That’s an unconventional path into public policy and administration.

It was in 2001, just after Nunavut became a territory, and the people I worked with hoped that mineral wealth would be a driver in Nunavut’seconomy. So the logic was that with this economic power, it would become a prosperous part of the federation.

But I realized I didn’t know what these things meant to the people of Nunavut. So I decided to pursue a Master’s degree (in environmental studies) and eventually a PhD in Public Policy where I could investigate that question.

What have you learned about how Northerners perceive the plans for their economy?

The dominant message remains that mineral wealth will bring prosperity, jobs, and a strong economy to Nunavut. But what I learned is that the Inuit people make their living in very different ways from southerners. Not everyone wants to work for a mining company or to work in the same way that we understand work here. Many people survive through a combination of means: wage and salaried employment, small commodity production, as well as hunting and harvesting berries, fish, caribou, and seal. What some people call the traditional economy remains a really important part of how people make a living.

What did you learn from people in the North?

I learned the value of being quiet and listening. We all carry with us certain images and presuppositions about how life ought to be lived and what is valuable. Sitting quietly and paying attention to people who live differently from us

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So Sheena Kennedy Dalseg, Jerry Sabina, and I founded the magazine Northern Public Affairs.

One of the missions of FPA and Carleton is to work with the Indigenous community to improve education and understanding about the culture and institutions in the North. Was that evident in your experience at Carleton?

I’m lucky to be part of an innovative, interdisciplinary community of faculty members, administrators, and students at Carleton who are committed to improving research and education about the North. On the research front, Carleton faculty have been very successful in partnering with northern and Indigenous scholars and organizations to secure Tri-Council funding for northern research, which has opened up excellent opportunities for learning and student mentoring.

Once you finish, what would be your dream job?

I would love to have a tenure track faculty position at a Northern university. But that doesn’t exist…yet!

Tell us something about yourself that would surprise people.

Hard to say. I’m often surprised I didn’t become a musician-- not because I’m particularly good at music, but because I enjoy it so much.

forces us to confront these preconceived ideas. I’m coming to believe this principle is as much a foundation for good scholarship as it is a foundation for good living.

Quiet listening is also good practice for learning land skills. Knowledge of the land is captured in Inuktitut, and that’s one of the reasons why the goal of achieving fully bilingual education is so important for Inuit youth. They’re also training their children how to hunt, fish, and trap and that’s partly a material thing but also a spiritual thing.

So much of your work reflects the mission of FPA to help build better societies by engaging with communities and working with public officials. For instance, you co-founded the policy magazine Northern Public Affairs to do just that.

I was at a meeting in Yellowknife in 2011 and we were talking about how so much research is being generated about the North but the knowledge doesn’t necessarily have a way of getting to decision makers there. Federal support for northern research has yielded important knowledge about climate change and resource development, for instance, but it didn’t have a channel.

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Joshua, beside a cairn built by the Norwegian team working to salvage Roald Amundsen’s ship Maud, which was built to reach the North Pole but sank in Cambridge Bay in 1931. Picture taken in Cambridge Bay in October 2013.

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carleton.ca/fpa/1hour2success

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Name: David Coletto

Degree and Year: BPAPM (04), MA Political Science (06), Carleton University

Other Degree: PhD, University of Calgary

Occupation: CEO, Abacus Inc., a polling and market research firm, and a frequent commentator on federal politics. Coletto is also an adjunct professor in the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs.

Number of news sites visited each day: Nine. The Ottawa Citizen, The Globe and Mail, National Newswatch, National Post, Toronto Star, CBC News, Washington Post, The Independent (UK), and BBC News.

What was your favourite class in university? My most memorable and favourite class was Dr. Jon Pammett’s elections class. The class was engaging and it was the first class in which I started using data to test my hypotheses, thereby improving my skills but also making paper writing easier.

Your first job out of university? My first job was working at a polling firm called SES Research (now called Nanos Research).

What you love about your work. I love that I learn something new every day. I’m not an expert

in a specific topic but in research methodologies, so I need to learn as much as I can about my client and their issues so I can help design and implement research studies.

The most challenging aspect of it. The most challenging part is the diversity of my job. It’s what I love the most but it’s also the most difficult.

One sentence to describe your strategy to success. Never say no. When you’re given an opportunity to contribute or you see an opportunity, seize it.

How did Carleton help you? Carleton connected me with some great faculty members and taught me many of the skills I use today. Outside the classroom, my involvement with RRRA (Rideau River Residence Association) and CUSA (Carleton University Student Association) helped develop the leadership and interpersonal skills that you can’t learn in a lecture.

Career PathsDavid Coletto

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Field NotesPolitical Science professor Elinor Sloan

The Question: Why are there delays in the delivery of military equipment and supplies?

The Research: Sloan reviewed government documents, focusing her efforts on 16 defence projects that are considered imperative for the Canadian Forces in the short to medium term and cost more than $100 million.

The Findings: Sloan identified five themes that help to explain why so many defence projects remain on the shelf, while forces in the field may lack the equipment and vehicles they need.

• The pursuit of ambitious developmental projects to fulfill requirements: DND often requests new products that are not yet developed.

• In-house preferences that are exposed as such once they leave DND: Statement of preferences are written with one vehicle or aircraft in mind, denying due process.

• Changing requirements as a result of battlefield experience.

• Rough order of magnitude costs that do not change over time: Cost estimates remain artificially low, leading to the rejection of bids.

• No single point of accountability: three federal departments oversee procurement decisions.

Quote: “It is evident in its Defence Procurement Strategy that the government is seeking both to maximize Canadian industrial opportunity…improve procurement outcomes and equip the CAF in a timely fashion,” wrote Sloan in the report, Something Has to Give: Why Delays are the New Reality of Canada’s Defence Procurement Strategy. “But some would argue that these two objectives are in tension.”

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carleton.ca/fpa/capital-advantage

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EventsAcross our Faculty

FPA Event: Author Meets Readers: Coercion and Social Welfare in Public Finance—Economic and Political Perspectives.February 26 More information here

Institute of African Studies: “Libya, Pan Africanism, African Unity and the Quest for Peace with Professor Horace Campbell”.February 10 More information here

School of Public Policy and Administration: Philanthrothink: A Roundtable on Innovations in Philanthropy.February 26 More information here

School of Journalism & Communication: Preventing Future Insurgencies with Dr. Karim H. Karim.February 24More information here

Department of Economics: Economics Graduate Student Colloquium.February 27 More information here

Department of Political Science: Graduate Conference: Canadian Democracy at a Crossroads? February 12 More information here

Social Work: Youth Research and Evaluation Exchange (Youth REX) Launch.February 25More information here

Law: A Critical Conversation: Centre for Women in Politics and Public Service Leadership.February 24More information here

Faculty Units, submit your events here

carleton.ca/fpa/research-month

FPA Voices