Leslie Pal explores a phenomenon unique to Canadian politics - the direct funding of advocacy groups by the government - and makes a significant contribution to the debate on the role of the state in shaping society. Focusing on groups concerned with the official languages, multiculturalism, and women's issues, he argues that funding was not neutral but was driven by state interests, and particularly by a national unity agenda.
Cynthia J. Alexander teaches Political Science at Acadia University. Leslie A. Pal is a Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the School of Public Administration at Carleton University. He earned is B.A. (Hon) from Mount Allison University and a doctorate from Queen's University
(Kingston). He has taught for two years at the University of Waterloo, and for ten years at the University of Calgary before taking up his current position at Carleton University. He has been a visiting scholar at the J.F.K. Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, and
lectures throughout North America and Europe. Dr. Pal has served on the national board of the Canadian political Science Association and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. He earned a Canadian Studies Writing Award in 1989 for his book Interests of the State: The Politics of Language,
Multiculturalism and Feminism in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993), and received a Research Achievement Award from Carleton University in 1996.