Political affiliation of Canadian university professors

Abstract

The social role of universities has been the subject of a lengthy debate as to whether those who teach in the academy are system-legitimizing conservatives or radicals helping to generate critical thinking that challenges the status quo. The aim of this paper is to evaluate political affiliations of Canadian university professors based on a national survey conducted in 2000. The study shows that Canadian professors' political affiliation can be identified as either left or right depending on how the political orientation of political parties is conceptualized. University professors tend to vote more for the Liberal Party than other parties, and view it as centrist party. Moreover, the study highlights a complex and non-monolithic picture of the Canadian academy. University professors are not politically homogenous and party vote depends on the prestige of their university, their discipline, gender, ethnicity, marital status, generation, and agreement with liberalism. © Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie 33(4) 2008.