The Brian Mulroney Institute of Government Presents
Book Launch: Environmental Governance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
Peter Clancy (Mulroney Institute Distinguished Fellow, Political Science) and Mario Levesque (Political Science and International Relations, Mount Allison University)
Friday, October 24, 2025
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Mulroney Hall 3030
The Mulroney Institute will be hosting a book launch for Mulroney Institute Distinguished Fellow Dr. Peter Clancy and Dr. Mario Levesque’s latest book, Environmental Governance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (UBC Press). The Gulf of St. Lawrence is one of Canada’s most complex marine systems, bordering on five provinces with 250,000 people living in proximity to the coast. At a time when the need for environmental sustainability has become urgent, managing the aquatic environment of this vast territory must consider not only biophysical processes but also human use, policy jurisdiction, and politics. Environmental Governance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence explores the politics of environmental action and policy in an area that has been the homeland of Indigenous peoples for millennia and part of Euro-Canadian life for centuries. The authors reverse the conventional view of the region as simply a passage between ocean and interior by focusing on the coastal margin and deepwater Gulf as a system. A series of distinct policy studies covers topics such as marine infrastructure, fisheries, offshore petroleum, coastal zones, marine transport, aquaculture, large ocean management, protected areas, and Indigenous governance. They examine each semi-autonomous field of environmental action within a geopolitical context, before comparing them as parts of an integrated whole, with the goal of understanding the management of this vital region.
Please join us for conversation and light refreshment.
All are welcome.
Biography
Dr. Peter Clancy
Peter Clancy is Senior Research Professor in the Department of Political Science at StFX. He retired from full-time teaching in 2016. Prior to that he taught in several subfields of Canadian politics as well as Aquatic Resources. From 2001 to 2004, he was the Coordinator of the Program for Interdisciplinary Studies in Aquatic Resources (ISAR). In fall 2006, he taught a combined group of StFX and Memorial University students at Harlow, England. He continues to offer a course on Governance for the StFX Public Policy and Governance Program. Before joining the StFX faculty in 1986, he taught for a number of years at the University of Western Ontario. On several occasions, Dr. Clancy has been a Visiting Scholar at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, England. He has also spent time as an invited Visiting Lecturer at the School of Management Studies of the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. In 2005, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Resource and Law and Policy at the Faculty of Law of the University of Western Australia in Perth. Dr. Clancy’s research work centres on the interplay of economic and political interests in a variety of settings, including business politics and natural resource industries. This includes wildlife, forests, petroleum, minerals, fisheries, and water. The geopolitical fields for inquiries include Canada and its regions. (Northern, Atlantic, and Prairie in particular) as well as Australasia. The relationships between resource owners, users, and market is the focus of most of these studies, with state policy as a crucial mediating form. He has authored and co-authored seven books and numerous academic articles and chapters. He has been a principal investigator on four nationally funded projects by SSHRC. At present, he is completing a manuscript on environmental governance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This project is supported by SSHRC of Canada and in collaboration with Dr. Mario Levesque at Mount Allison University. The project website is www.gulfgov.ca.
Dr. Mario Levesque
Dr. Mario Levesque is Professor of Canadian Politics and Public Policy in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Mount Allison University. His teaching and research focuses on public policy analysis and public administration largely within the Canadian context. Specifically, Dr. Levesque’s research examines relationships between variations in governance arrangements and changes in public policy in order to elaborate strategies for changes in public policy. His interests stem from previous work in the environmental sector.