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Film Clips, Chapter 7


Political Participation


Gerrymandering: How Drawing Jagged Lines Can Impact an Election

The textbook discusses gerrymandering (or unfairly redrawing constituent boundaries) in historical context (mostly in the 1800s). But it still happens today, though in more sophisticated ways. This TED ED video depicts how gerrymandering works today, and how it seriously affects results in voting.


History of the Vote: Women's Right to Vote

This historical overview of women’s suffrage in Canada plots out the timeline to full rights for voting for women in Canada. First met with outrage, sarcasm, and mocking, the call for women to have the right to vote changed. Society slowly rejected earlier views of a patriarchal political system based on religious views. But the effects of World War I, and the strong advocacy of women like Manitoba’s Nelly McClung, changed a mindset, and spurred a national process of women’s suffrage (though all women over 18 weren’t included until 1960).


Kitten Eater McGuinty Wins 2003 Ontario Election

Attack ads are used routinely in elections across the world. Some are vitriolic, others rather amusing. In the 2003 Ontario provincial election (where the incumbent Ernie Eves was thrown out of power, and the NDP lost its official party status), one of the strangest attack ads in Canadian political history was flung at Liberal candidate Dalton McGuinty, who was called an “evil reptilian kitten-eater from other planet.” Was this a silly joke? Or was it an extreme example of attack ads in modern politics? A CBC radio panel of experts dissects the election in this radio clip.


Super PACS Explained

Political action committees (PACS) combine the interests of different independent groups to push a political agenda or message. “Super” PACS emerged in 2010, and really stepped up their activities during the presidential election campaign in 2012. These new mega-groups became entities on their own, showing a new direction for what used to be smaller, less organized groups. Contributions to these groups, once limited in the US by law, were made unrestricted, meaning individuals and groups with lots of money could more effectively drive a policy issue through these hugely influential groups.