Zachary Spicer

In an attempt to reverse declining rates of voter participation, governments around the world are turning to electronic voting to improve the efficiency of vote counts, and increase the accessibility and equity of the voting process for electors who may face additional barriers. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this trend.Voting Online focuses on Canada, where the technology has been widely embraced by municipal governments with one of the highest rates of use in the world. In the age of cyber elections, Canada is the only country where governments offer fully remote electronic elections and where traditional paper voting is eliminated for entire electorates. Municipalities are the laboratories of electoral modernization when it comes to digital voting reform. We know conspicuously little about the effects of these changes, particularly the elimination of paper ballots.Relying on surveys of voters, non-voters, and candidates in twenty Ontario cities, and a survey of administrators across the province of Ontario, Voting Online provides a holistic view of electronic elections unavailable anywhere else.

In an attempt to reverse declining rates of voter participation, governments around the world are turning to electronic voting to improve the efficiency of vote counts, and increase the accessibility and equity of the voting process for electors who may face additional barriers. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this trend.Voting Online focuses on Canada, where the technology has been widely embraced by municipal governments with one of the highest rates of use in the world. In the age of cyber elections, Canada is the only country where governments offer fully remote electronic elections and where traditional paper voting is eliminated for entire electorates. Municipalities are the laboratories of electoral modernization when it comes to digital voting reform. We know conspicuously little about the effects of these changes, particularly the elimination of paper ballots.Relying on surveys of voters, non-voters, and candidates in twenty Ontario cities, and a survey of administrators across the province of Ontario, Voting Online provides a holistic view of electronic elections unavailable anywhere else.

Municipalities in Canada have an array of servicing options available to them when producing or delivering local services, such as water, public transit, and waste collection, including in-house provision or privatization. However, services may also be contracted or jointly-delivered with neighbouring municipalities – a practice some local governments are increasingly gravitating towards. Delivery by Design sheds light on this practice in Canadian local government by examining three crucial questions: Why do municipalities cooperate? What is being shared or contracted with other governments? And what leads to successful or unsuccessful relationships between municipalities? The book finds that Canadian municipalities are cooperating fairly regularly, but are doing so in a small number of policy areas, mainly emergency and administrative services. Zachary Spicer examines these types of relationships, explaining how they will be crucial in the future as local services are increasingly shared or jointly delivered by municipal governments. Relying on extensive data and document collection, surveys, and a series of primary interviews with local decision-makers, Delivery by Design explores the nature of interlocal collaboration in Canada, mapping out a relatively understudied process in local governance.

City-county separation is a form of governance in which rural and urban areas are formally separated. Although these areas were once thought to be distinct because of their diverse sets of values, economies, labour trends, and ways of life, more recently, and in response to regional growth, governments have begun to design institutions that link the city to surrounding rural governments in order to provide greater policy and service continuity to the region. Detailing the development of municipal institutions, the original logic behind the city-county separation, and the eventual shift in institutional and municipal organization, The Boundary Bargain demonstrates that urban and rural areas have always had a reciprocal relationship and that both play an important role in the strength of the national economy and the broader local community. Focusing on three case studies of separated cities and their counties that still retain strict city-county separation - London, Guelph, and Barrie - Zachary Spicer reveals how this policy works, what problems it poses, and examines the best practices for addressing growth, development, and sprawl from a regional perspective. Highlighting the dangers of municipal institutions that are too rigid to modernize, The Boundary Bargain provides a strong historical account of city-county separation that will guide governments from within and beyond Ontario on how to better manage growth.

City-county separation is a form of governance in which rural and urban areas are formally separated. Although these areas were once thought to be distinct because of their diverse sets of values, economies, labour trends, and ways of life, more recently, and in response to regional growth, governments have begun to design institutions that link the city to surrounding rural governments in order to provide greater policy and service continuity to the region. Detailing the development of municipal institutions, the original logic behind the city-county separation, and the eventual shift in institutional and municipal organization, The Boundary Bargain demonstrates that urban and rural areas have always had a reciprocal relationship and that both play an important role in the strength of the national economy and the broader local community. Focusing on three case studies of separated cities and their counties that still retain strict city-county separation - London, Guelph, and Barrie - Zachary Spicer reveals how this policy works, what problems it poses, and examines the best practices for addressing growth, development, and sprawl from a regional perspective. Highlighting the dangers of municipal institutions that are too rigid to modernize, The Boundary Bargain provides a strong historical account of city-county separation that will guide governments from within and beyond Ontario on how to better manage growth.