PATRON

The Political Accountability, Transparency, and Representation Oversight Network

Explore Latest Projects

PATRON-ROTIP is an interdisciplinary research program that uses computational methods and tools to analyze Canadian governance, while partnering with civic non-profits and training students through experiential learning pipelines.

RESEARCH AT A GLANCE

Research areas

Interdisciplinary approaches to Canadian governance

Funding Projects

Research projects advancing the study of Canadian governance

Research Network Members

A collaborative community advancing interdisciplinary research

Political Accountability & Oversight

How legislatures, officers of Parliament, and oversight bodies scrutinize executive power, including provincial interventions in local governance.

Computational & Open-data Approaches to Accountability

New datasets, tools, and text-as-data methods applied to legislative records, government disclosures, or public data, released openly.

Representation & Electoral Integrity

Examining factors that influence democratic participation (such as voting systems, incidences of misinformation, voter engagement or polarization), and the role of information in sustaining democratic participation.

Transparency & Political Finance

Disclosure, lobbying, and campaign and party finance at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels.

Our Latest Projects

  • MaRiPoSa

    Electoral District Boundary Effects in Canada

    Electoral redistricting in single-member plurality systems requires drawing boundaries that satisfy competing legal, geographic, and demographic constraints. We introduce the fractionalized rasterization process, and the Markov Riding Position Sampler (MaRiPoSa).

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  • Redistricting

    Boundary Responsiveness Across Five Federal Elections

    We extend the MaRiPoSa project to five federal elections from 2011–2025 and report, for each party, the range of seat outcomes reachable under boundaries that satisfy population and continguity rules, with every ballot held where it is cast.

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  • Deep Learning

    Satellite Imagery, Deep Learning, and Canadian Environmental Governance

    Large-scale development projects in Canada have transformed landscapes in ways that often escape public view—systematically shielded from visibility.

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  • Hansard

    Benevolent Dehumanization: Disability Discourse in Canadian Parliament

    How do elected representatives talk about people with disabilities? To answer this, we analyze a census of Hansard speeches from 1982-2026.

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  • Silicon Sampling

    What Happens When AI

    Simulates the Canadian Electorate?

    Falling response rates in survey research have prompted a recent proposal that AI language models can stand in for human respondents—"silicon sampling".

    Read Now →

Contact Us

Whether you have questions about our research, want to explore collaboration opportunities, or are interested in our work, the PATRON lab team is happy to hear from you.

Get in Touch

For research inquiries, media requests, or general questions.

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Open-Source Tools

Explore our code, datasets, and replication materials on GitHub.

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Our Partners

Learn more about the institutions and research groups we collaborate with.

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