2022 Housing Forum

The LISPOP Housing Forum will be hosted virtually on October 6th, 2022. The event will be accessible remotely via Zoom stream. The event is free to attend, but registration will be required for attendance.  

The symposium will explore public opinion and housing policy in Canada from the perspectives of academics and community organization, including, but not limited to the following presenters:

Simon Kiss, PhD

Simon Kiss is an Associate Professor in the Digital Media and Journalism department at Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as the Director of LISPOP.

He pursues research in 3 major areas. First, he is interested in examining the political roles played by the Canadian news media, be it in the process of public policy formulation, election campaigns or opinion formation. Second, he is interested in the field of risk management, risk perception and environmental politics. Lastly, he maintains an ongoing interest in the nature of social democratic politics and parties in advanced industrialized societies, particularly in Canada and Germany.

For more detailed information about my research, visit his personal website.

Andrea Perrella, PhD

Andrea Perrella is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Wilfrid Laurier University.

He studied political science at l’Université de Montréal, obtaining a PhD in 2006 and an MSc in 1995.

Prior to joining Laurier, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies. He also held a limited-term assignment at Concordia University in Montreal.

Mike Moffatt, PhD

Dr. Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at Ivey Business School, Western University. Mike’s research at SPI focuses on the intersection of regional economic development, building child-friendly, climate-friendly housing and communities, and clean innovation. In 2017, Mike was the Chief Innovation Fellow for the Government of Canada, advising Deputy Ministers on innovation policy and emerging trends. He has also previously held the titles of Director (Interim) of the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management, Directory of Policy at Canada 2020, and Chief Economist for the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto. Mike has worked with politicians and policymakers of all political stripes in several countries to craft more effective public policy. From 2013 to 2015, Mike served as an economic advisor to Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. Mike holds a Ph.D. in Management Science from Ivey Business School and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester. Outside of his clean economy work at SPI, Mike is a disability-rights activist.

Darrell Bricker, PhD

Darrell Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University, where he was a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellow, and a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has also been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Wilfrid Laurier University, which named him one of their top 100 graduates in the last 100 years.

Dr. Bricker is a prolific author. He’s written five national bestselling books, Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset (with Ed Greenspon – Doubleday, 2002), What Canadians Think About Almost Everything (with John Wright – Doubleday, 2005), We Know What You’re Thinking (with John Wright – Harper Collins, 2009), Canuckology (with John Wright – Harper Collins, 2011), and The Big Shift (with John Ibbitson – Harper Collins,  2013).

Dr. Bricker is a popular public speaker who regularly engages with audiences around the world. He is interviewed frequently in the media, appearing on CNN, the BBC, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera, as well as on all of Canada’s major television and radio networks. He’s written articles for publications as diverse as Canada’s Globe and Mail and France’s Le Monde.

Dr. Bricker is a passionate supporter of Canada’s men and women in uniform. He serves by appointment of the Minister of National Defence as the Honorary Colonel of the Queen’s York Rangers, Canada’s oldest army reserve regiment. For his volunteer work with the military he has received a commendation from the Commander of the Army, a commendation from the Admiral of the Navy, and has been awarded the Diamond Jubilee Medal by Canada’s Governor General.

Anthony Piscitelli, PhD

Anthony Piscitelli is a Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Conestoga. His area of expertise and interest include non-profit, co-operative, and public sector governance as well as survey research. 

His major research projects, scholarly activities and/or publications include the following:

• Principle Investigator for Representative Governance an Insight Development Grant funded study building on Dr. Piscitelli's recent research exploring the tension board members face between representing the organization's membership and effective governance
• Project Director for Leveraging Community Contributions to Acquire Local Real Estate for Long-Term Affordability and Sustainability a College and Community Innovation Program grant supporting the launch of a for-profit co-operatively owned affordable rental housing provider

Laura Pin, PhD

Laura Pin is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Wilfrid Laurier University. She was awarded her PhD in Political Science from York University in 2019, with a focus on Canadian and comparative politics. During her doctoral studies, she spent time as a visiting scholar at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Prior to joining Laurier, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Guelph, with a joint appointment to the Political Science Department and Community-Engaged Scholarship Institute.

Her research examines how social inequality intersects with policy-governance regimes and how political scientists can use community engaged research to understand participation in public policy beyond formal political institutions. She engages with race, class, gender, disability and other categories of difference to understand the lived experiences of policy.

One of her current research projects, the Housing on the RUF project, examines how recent housing market dynamics have affected people living with poverty in rural-urban fringe communities. A second research project examines the politics of public budgeting at the municipal level, with attention to participatory budgeting processes. In both these projects, she often works collaboratively with other scholars and community members.

Zachary Spicer, PhD

Zachary Spicer is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration. He holds a PhD in Political Science from The University of Western Ontario and began his career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University after completing post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance and the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University. He has also served as a Senior Policy Advisor with the Ontario Public Service and as the Director of Research and Outreach with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. He is the recipient of both the Susan Clarke Young Scholars’ Award and the Norton Long Young Scholars’ Award from the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

His research interests include Politics and Government , Public Administration, Local Government, Smart Cities, Data Governance and Innovation Policy.

Mandi Gray, PhD

Mandi Gray is a CIHR Health System Impact Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Indigenous Wellness Core (Alberta Health Services) and Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.

Jennifer Whitaker

Jennifer is a Research Associate at Conestoga College supporting projects related to affordable housing, governance, social innovation, and development. Jennifer received her Master’s degree in Sociology from Queen’s University in 2019 and is currently working towards completing her PhD in Sociology at Carleton University. Her research focusses on the intersections of food, citizenship, and responsibility. She’s interested in how macro-level discourse influences micro-level practices.

Joanne Heritz, PhD

Joanne Heritz PhD is an Assistant Professor (LTA) in the Department of Political Science and a Research Associate for the Niagara Community Observatory at Brock University where she currently teaches Public Policy and Public Administration. Her PhD is in Comparative Public Policy from McMaster University. She has Master and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science from Brock University and a Master of Information Studies degree from the University of Toronto. Research interests include the representation of marginalized minorities in policy processes, urban politics, and urban Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Her research has been published in International Indigenous Policy Journal, Canadian Public Administration and Journal of Canadian Studies.  

Alissa Klingbaum

Alissa Klingbaum is the Research and Policy Coordinator at WomanACT, a policy and planning organization that works collaboratively to end violence against women and advance gender equity. At WomanACT, Alissa generates and mobilizes evidence on housing and women’s safety, aiming to advance the right to housing for survivors of gender-based violence. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Toronto and has previously held research and policy roles focused on supportive housing, food insecurity, and transportation.

Emma McDougall

Emma McDougall is a PhD Candidate in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Her research explores the relationship between transportation and neighbourhood change with a focus on gentrification, displacement, and the role of multimodal transportation planning. 

Aleksandra Petrovic

Aleksandra Petrovic is the Executive Director of the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region, Kitchener, Ontario. Her community-based research work over two decades relies on qualitative, peer-based, and theatre techniques in the areas of immigration, anti-poverty, women’s rights, and housing.

Alison Smith, PhD

Alison Smith is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD in Canadian politics and urban governance at l'Université de Montréal in 2016. Her teaching and research interests relate to Canadian politics and public policy, including complex policy making, homelessness governance, and the history of housing policy. Her forthcoming book, Multiple Barriers: The Multilevel Governance of Homelessness in Canada will be published in July. It asks why homelessness governance is so different across the country, and argues that the fact that homelessness can be defined so differently explains many of these differences. When not working, she is usually playing lego, uno, or baseball with her two young boys. 

Kelsey Carriere

Kelsey is a Beach Community Energy Cooperative board, Design and Communications Committees member and President and founding board member of Glassworks Co-op. Kelsey holds a Master of Urban Planning, Sustainability Planning and Urban Design from the University of Toronto, as well as a BSc of Environmental Studies in Environmental Planning from York University and the University of Toronto. Kelsey has 4 years as Research and Policy Coordinator and Researcher, Facilitator & Design Lead at Food Systems Lab. Kelsey is presently Senior Project Manager at Park People in Toronto. Kelsey has entrepreneurial experience in both food and creative industries, as well as being a committed volunteer in theatre.