Module 1
Introduction to
Political Acumen
Module length: 90 min
Study time: 3 hr
Accelerator Short Course: Available
This keynote session is a cornerstone of the program. We will explore the unwritten protocols and grey areas that leaders in today’s public service need to navigate in an environment of increasingly centralized decision-making, a stronger political service, permanent campaigning, big data and a 24/7 news cycle.
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Dr Jared Wesley is a pracademic -- a practising political scientist and former public servant -- whose career path to the University of Alberta Department of Political Science has included senior management positions in the Alberta Public Service (APS).While in Alberta’s Executive Council, he gained valuable experience in the development of public policy and intergovernmental strategy. He also served as Director of Learning and Development in the Alberta Public Service Commission, establishing policies and curriculum to train public servants at all levels of the APS.
He studies and teaches the politics of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy of politics, and is co-author of two leading books: The Public Servant’s Guide to Government in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2018) and Inside Canadian Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016, 2020). For more information on Dr. Wesley, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/jaredjwesley.
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Dr Peter Constantinou is one of Canada’s leading public policy practitioner academics and an award-winning university lecturer. He is the recipient of the President’s University-wide Teaching Award at York University. He has an extensive record of publication on topics in public policy and has recently completed studies of political acuity in the Ontario Public Sector and in Durham Region. Dr. Constantinou is also the current Academic Director of the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme.He holds a BA, Specialized Honours, in Public Policy and Administration (York University); an MA in Public Policy and Administration (McMaster University); and a Ph.D. in Higher Education (University of Toronto). His doctoral dissertation was a landmark study of government relations in Ontario’s post-secondary education sector.
Dr. Constantinou is a long-time public servant who has worked at the federal and provincial levels of government, and in the college and university sector.
During his career, he has served as a research analyst with the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing; a policy analyst, senior policy advisor and senior international trade advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy; and chief of staff and executive assistant to an Ontario Minister of Education and Training. In the broader public sector, Dr. Constantinou has held the positions of director of government relations at Seneca College; special advisor to the President of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT); and director of international projects at Durham College.
He has decades of experience in adult education and executive training in the area of public policy and administration both in Canada and abroad. He has conducted specialized programs for the Ontario Fire College and First Nations Technical Institute and has taught provincial and municipal government professionals in Canada.