Were the Canadians grappling with similar campaign finance issues?
They’re fairly eclectic. I’ve used campaign finance data, which is publicly available. The Federal Election Commission collects data on contributions by individuals, political parties, other organizations, etc. There are also a number of organizations in the U.S. that take the FEC data and make them more easily digestible by the public. I’ve drawn on public opinion surveys in some projects. I also conduct a lot of interviews. For the project on U.S. interest groups, for instance, I’ve been talking to the political directors of about 20-25 of the major interest groups over the past three election cycles. I ask them about what they’re doing differently in each election cycle and how their strategies are changing. I plan to do the same in the Canadian project.
