Welcome to Defending Canadian Democracy, a newsletter published by Emmett Macfarlane

Defending Canadian Democracy is a Substack focused on providing informed analysis of events in Canadian politics and constitutional law in Canada.

In an era of misinformation and democratic decline, too many news media organizations and other subscription-based journalistic efforts are heavily focused on pushing opinion by non-expert commentators. This Newsletter is focused on providing informed analysis of important political and legal developments in Canada designed to help readers understand those events, how our governance operates, and to critically engage with recent developments to advance a deeper civic knowledge among Canadians.

My goal with this recently-rebranded Newsletter is to provide expert analysis on Canadian politics. No more than 25% of posts will be argumentative, opinion-based pieces, and those that are will be labelled as such. In addition to writing about major political developments, I will continue to write pieces relating to constitutional law and major court decisions.

I am a professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, and a leading expert of Canadian governance, constitutional law, public policy, and rights. I am the author of Governing from the Bench: The Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Role (UBC Press, 2013) and Constitutional Pariah: Reference re Senate Reform and the Future of Parliament (UBC Press, 2021). My latest book, co-authored with Janet Hiebert and Anna Drake, is Legislating under the Charter: Parliament, Executive Power, and Rights (University of Toronto Press, 2023).

I am also the editor of Constitutional Amendment in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2016), Policy Change, Courts, and the Canadian Constitution (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Dilemmas of Free Expression (University of Toronto Press, 2022), and co-editor (with Kate Puddister) of Constitutional Crossroads: Reflections on Charter Rights, Reconciliation, and Change (UBC Press, 2022).

For a full list of my scholarly research activities, check out my personal website.