Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Canadian Studies News

• Canadian Studies affiliates headed to 2025 ACSUS Biennial Conference

• Hildebrand Fellow Taesoo Song publishes research on Foreign Buyer Taxes and housing affordability

News from Canada

• Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald, fifty years on

Academic Opportunities

• Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship

Upcoming Events

• Panel: Canada at a Crossroads: Evaluating the Carney Government’s First Nine Months

External Events

• Simon Fraser University’s 60th Anniversary Alumni Reception in Silicon Valley

CANADIAN STUDIES NEWS

Canadian Studies Affiliates Headed to 2025 ACSUS Biennial Conference

Several members of the Berkeley Canadian Studies community will be heading to Seattle later this week for the 27th Biennial Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS). ACSUS is the major interdisciplinary network in the United States dedicated to advancing understanding of Canada’s politics, culture, and international relations, as well as the bilateral relationship between our two countries. Every two years, the ACSUS conference brings together scholars, students, and practitioners from across North America to exchange ideas and showcase research on Canada’s past, present, and future.

This year’s conference will be held November 13-16. We’re pleased to announce that several members of the Canadian Studies Program at UC Berkeley will be participating in ACSUS this year. We invite any readers who will be attending to connect with our Berkeley scholars in Seattle. We issue a special invitation to join us at the Evening Reception on Saturday, November 15, which is proudly sponsored by the Canadian Studies Program and our generous friends.

Stay tuned for more information and an event recap next week!

Faculty and Affiliates

Hidetaka Hirota (History, UC Berkeley)

Chairing and presenting in the panel “Immigration and Border Crossings,” Professor Hirota’s paper, “American Immigration Restriction, Canadian Retaliation: Tension Over Migrant Labor between Canada and the United States in the Late Nineteenth Century,” explores the intertwined histories of immigration control and labor policy between the two countries.

Kathrine Richardson (Planning, Policy, and Environmental Studies, San José State University)

Professor Richardson is a member of the Canadian Studies advisory board. She will be participating in the panel “Cross-Border Relationships in the 21st Century”, where she will present “The Cascadia Innovation Corridor: The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the Making of a North American Innovative Cross-border Region”.

Cheryl Suzack (Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley,)

Professor Suzack is a new affiliate of Canadian Studies, who joined the UC Berkeley faculty this year from the University of Toronto. She will present “Blockades, Self-Help Remedies, and Indigenous Opposition: When is it Legally Permissible for Indigenous Peoples to use Direct Action to Prevent Resource Extraction in Their Territories?” Her research, at the intersection of law and Indigenous studies, offers a timely examination of Indigenous legal resistance to environmental exploitation in Canada.

In addition, board member Dr. Christopher Sands (Johns Hopkins Center for Canadian Studies) will receive the 2025 ICCS Certificate of Merit for his “sustained, diverse, and significant contributions to the advancement of the understanding of Canada and the furtherance of Canadian Studies”.

Graduate Fellows

Britt Leake (Political Science, UC Berkeley)

Britt will be a panelist in the Politics and Public Policy Student Colloquium. Britt will be presenting his paper titled “Trudeau and Mulroney, Habermas and Rawls: Rethinking Changing Visions of Canadian Nationhood and Political Legitimacy”, based on research funded by his 2023 Hildebrand Fellowship.

Lydia Mathews (History, UC Berkeley)

Lydia will participate in “Student Colloquium: Reflections on Canada’s Past”. She will present “Pure Milk in Montreal: Scientific Mothering Across the US-Canadian Border”. Her presentation, based on her 2024 Hildebrand Fellowship research, highlights the intersections of science and politics in the US-Canada relationship.

Canadian Studies is also sponsoring recent Hildebrand Fellow Jessica Jiang (Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley) to attend as part of her ongoing research into interactions between Chinese and Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Hildebrand Fellow Taesoo Song Publishes Research on Foreign Buyer Taxes and Housing Affordability

Have taxes on noncitizen buyers made Canada’s real estate more affordable? That’s the question UC Berkeley graduate student Taesoo Song set out to answer when he applied for a Canadian Studies Hildebrand Fellowship in 2022.

Taesoo, now a PhD candidate in City & Regional Planning, has recently published his findings in his new article in the Journal of Urban Affairs, “Anti-immigration and the politics of housing affordability: Examining the evolution and housing market impacts of Foreign Buyer Taxes in British Columbia and Ontario“.

Foreign Buyer Taxes (FBTs) were introduced in Canada as a proposal to cool runaway price growth in the real estate sector amid growing concerns over housing unaffordability. Taesoo, who specializes in housing and land use policy as well as how cities manage immigration, not only questioned the effectiveness of these taxes, but also the reasons why Canadian politicians supported them over other policy tools.

Taesoo’s Hildebrand Fellowship funded his travel to Toronto to conduct fieldwork. There, he met with other Canadian researchers addressing housing issues as well as real estate agents. Taesoo worked closely with Karen Chapple, a former Berkeley professor who is the current director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. He also received project guidance from former Canadian Studies director Irene Bloemraad.

In his article, Taesoo draws on media and policy discourses to show how FBTs gained political traction through racialized narratives that narrowly framed foreign – especially Chinese – buyers as key culprits of unaffordability, deflecting attention from broader structural issues in the housing market that enabled speculation. This framing enabled governments to avoid more politically sensitive reforms implicating domestic investors and homeowners.

By examining quantitative housing market data, Taesoo finds that FBTs were associated with a decline in homeownership among immigrants without Canadian citizenship or permanent residency in affected regions, with no significant improvements in rental affordability. Altogether, the findings suggest that provincial governments may have adopted FBTs as a political expediency to signal government action on the housing crisis while sidestepping structural drivers of unaffordability in their housing markets.

NEWS FROM CANADA

Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years On

Today, November 10, marks the fiftieth anniversary of one of the worst maritime disasters in Great Lakes history. On this day in 1975, the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald went down during a fierce storm on Lake Superior. All 29 crew members aboard were lost. The ship’s sudden sinking, which has never been solved, sparked decades of investigation and led to several important changes in maritime safety standards. It also sparked widespread cultural fascination, particularly after it was memorialized by Gordon Lightfoot in his ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, which the singer considered his finest work.

Today, the tragedy continues to resonate throughout Great Lakes communities and beyond. In Detroit, the Edmund Fitzgerald’s final destination, families of crew members gathered yesterday to honor their lives. At a ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Gordon Lightfoot was honored for his role in bringing international awareness to the tragedy through his sensitive treatment of the subject. And social media has renewed interest in the sinking on the anniversary of the tragedy: Lightfoot’s song has recently seen a surge in popularity on platforms such as TikTok.

Image source: Greenmars on Wikimedia Commons.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Deadline: November 30, 2025

Applications are now open for the International Affairs Fellowship (IAF) in Canada, offered by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and sponsored by Power Corporation of Canada.

The fellowship supports mid-career professionals in spending 6-12 months at a Canadian institution to deepen expertise on Canada and U.S.-Canada relations. Fellows may come from academia, government, business, journalism, NGOs, or think tanks. Prior Canada experience is not required.

The award provides a stipend of up to $110,000 USD and a modest travel allowance. Applicants must be US citizens. Learn more and apply here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tues., Dec. 2 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

When Mark Carney won the 2025 Canadian Federal election, he assumed leadership of a nation facing multiple structural problems and widespread discontent. Canadians had united against threats from the United States, but major debates remained over issues such as housing costs, immigration, and Canada’s stagnant economy. During the campaign, Carney distanced the Liberal Party from its Trudeau-era platform and promised to be a steady hand to deliver urgently needed reform. Nine months on, how well is the Carney government delivering on those promises? Join our panel representing Canada’s major political parties as they debate Carney’s performance in tackling the country’s most pressing challenges.

About the Panelists

Andrew Bevan is the CEO of the strategy firm Catalyze4. He was the campaign co-director for the Liberal campaign in the 2025 federal election. With over 30 years of public service experience, he previously served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, and Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada.

Parm Kahlon is a founding partner and strategist at Core Firm. She served as Special Assistant to Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and worked with various MLAs with the BC NDP. She has also served as managing director for UFCW 1518, one of British Columbia’s oldest and largest unions.

Jordan Paquet is the vice-president of Bluesky Strategy Group. Over the course of his nearly 20-year career, he has worked in across multiple levels of Canadian government, including the Prime Minister’s Office under the Stephen Harper; as Principal Secretary to Conservative Opposition leader Rona Ambrose; and most recently as the Chief of Staff in Prince Edward Island’s Government Members Office.

This event will have a remote attendance option via Zoom. Please select the “virtual attendance” in the RSVP form to receive the link.

If you require an accommodation to participate fully in this event, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible by emailing canada@berkeley.edu.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Simon Fraser University’s 60th Anniversary Alumni Reception in Silicon Valley

Sat., Nov. 15 | 5:00 pm | Mountain View | Buy tickets

In celebration of SFU’s 60th anniversary, you are invited for a special evening at the Computer History Museum! Enjoy complimentary access to the exhibit, mingle with fellow alumni, and expand your professional network, all while savouring delicious food and beverages. Spaces are limited, so register by November 11 to reserve your spot. Guests are welcome!

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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