2024 Stanfield Conversation

2024 has been dubbed the Year of Elections, with more of the world’s people participating in nation-wide votes than during any previous year in history. It comes at a time when “democratic backsliding” – the persistent erosion of democratic values and institutions - has become alarmingly widespread. With both electoral outcomes and the quality of democratic processes on trial, attention has gravitated towards the climax of this unprecedented flurry of elections: the contest for the US presidency.

What will this election signal for the trajectory of democratic processes worldwide? Will it reflect a decisive tilt towards democratic decline, democratic renewal, or some indeterminate middle ground? And will it reinforce or reverse the declining standing of the United States among the world’s struggling community of democracies?

This year’s Stanfield Conversation - two weeks after the US presidential vote - promises a timely and illuminating assessment of these prospects.

• Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail international affairs columnist
• Debra Thompson, Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies and Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University

Learn more about the speakers >

Please register for limited in-person seating or to watch the event live online!

ASL interpretation will be provided on stage and on the livestream.

Dalhousie University’s series builds on the legacy of Rt. Hon. Robert L. Stanfield, former Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party. This series focuses on critical challenges to democracy and imaginative and inspiring responses to them. Through the conversations, we aim to tackle subjects of national and international importance, drawing on diverse, world-class thinkers and practitioners of democracy to do so.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University Avenue, Halifax, Canada