the main objective of the four-year degree program in politics and governance is to provide a critical understanding of how power is exercised by both formal and informal governance entities at the international, national, provincial, and local levels. students will learn to evaluate and analyze political decisions, administrative practice, and policies that emerge from a variety of sources, and to evaluate them on a range of criteria, including empirical, theoretical and ethical bases. the program offers a number of professional electives drawn from five traditional sub fields of political science: canadian, comparative, global, policy, and theory. students may choose depth in a small number of thematic categories, or choose breadth by sampling in several such categories.

graduates of the politics and governance program will be able to pursue careers in a variety of capacities in any of the public, private, or third (voluntary and nonprofit) sectors. these may include becoming a policy analyst for the federal, provincial, or municipal government, a decision-maker in an ngo or a position in the private-sector, with a company that has extensive interactions with government, or that conducts public research. it might also include positions in international governmental organizations (such as the un and world bank), or non-governmental organizations [such as unicef or médicins sans frontières (doctors without borders)]. graduates may also pursue further education through law school or graduate studies in disciplines such as government, political science, public administration, or public policy.