PATRON
The Political Accountability, Transparency, and Representation Oversight Network
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.
Accountability & Representation
Analyzing how political institutions, electoral systems, lobbying practices, and governance shape who is (or is not) represented in Canadian politics and how voices of certain groups may be marginalized.
Political Finance & Transparency
Investigating the flows of money in politics (e.g., donations, third-party advertising, corporate influence), government procurement, and evaluating how financial transparency or reforms affect political behaviour and strategy.
Electoral Integrity & Political Behaviour
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.
Our Latest Projects
MaRiPoSa
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).
Electoral District Boundary Effects in Canada
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Redistricting
We extend the MaRiPoSa to analyze fairness across multiple Canadian federal elections (2011–2025). This analysis examines whether such boundary-dependent outcomes reflect systematic patterns or isolated anomalies.
Boundary Responsiveness Across Five Federal Elections
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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.
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".
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.
Open-Source Tools
Explore our code, datasets, and replication materials on GitHub.
Our Partners
Learn more about the institutions and research groups we collaborate with.
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