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Canadian Government Policy: Background Research

This Guide will assist you in researching Federal Government policy in Canada using both governmental and non-governmental sources

Newspapers, Magazines, Scholarly Journals, and Books

For more information on the resources listed here, including search tips and techniques, go to the Details page. 

News and Popular Magazine Articles

Users may also wish to consult the Hill Times, the go-to journal on Canadian politics and news surrounding Parliament Hill. It is published twice-weekly and has a daily news website. Published in Ottawa, it covers the Parliament of Canada, the federal government, and other federal political news. Patrons can gain access through the York Library Catalogue through CBCA or Miscellaneous E-Journals.

Scholarly Journal Articles 

  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Canadian Business and Current Affairs Database (Formerly CBCA Complete. Includes scholarly and popular materials published in Canada)
  • PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service; PAIS is an international database that includes references to over 628,000 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, and more. PAIS International includes publications from over 120 countries. In addition to English, some materials are available in French, German, Italian, and other languages).
  • America: History and Life (Database of articles that focuses on North America, including Canada)
  • Web of Science (includes the Social Science Citation Index)

 

Books

Try searching the York Library Catalogue by keyword first. If your search generates too results that are difficult to narrow, use the Advanced Search and look to the left-hand side of the screen for filters to limit your search by type of resource (i.e. books, articles), available online, date range, subject heading, and more. Most books that include a significant discussion of Canadian government policy have the word Canada appear in the subject field. You can search for as many different concepts as you wish, limiting yourself to searching the subject field and linking them together by selecting AND on the left. A search might look like this: 

omni canada subj search

 

You can also narrow your search results while you are on this search screen by looking to the right side and filtering by language (i.e. English, French), the resource type (books, journal articles), and looking for a publication published within a specific yearly range, for instance, books published only after the year 2000.