Susan Delacourt: Chronicling Canada’s Political Evolution
We’ve followed Susan Delacourt’s work for decades as she’s shaped political journalism through four prime ministerial eras. Her career exemplifies how to marry rigorous policy analysis with accessible storytelling about democracy’s machinery.
From Parliament Hill to National Influence
- 1980s-1990s Constitutional Battles: Cut her teeth covering the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords for The Globe and Mail, developing her signature style of blending human drama with constitutional nuance.
- 2000s Party Dynamics: Authored definitive accounts of Liberal leadership struggles in Juggernaut while analyzing the Conservative merger for National Post.
- 2010s Digital Transformation: Pioneered coverage of data-driven campaigning through Shopping for Votes, presaging modern microtargeting debates.
Defining Works
- The federal Conservative leader is saying that Canada needs change... Delacourt’s 2025 analysis of the Poilievre-Ford rift became the reference point for understanding modern Conservative dynamics. By contrasting the federal leader’s "change" rhetoric with Ontario’s operational critiques, she revealed deeper ideological fractures. Her access to both camps’ strategists produced unprecedented insights into campaign resource allocation during leadership spats.
- The article’s impact reverberated through question period, with opposition MPs citing her analysis to challenge Poilievre’s unity claims. Academics later praised its methodology in tracking how provincial-federal tensions reshape national campaigns.
- Justin Trudeau’s time as prime minister will essentially wrap up this weekend. This collaborative 2025 piece with Matt Gurney set the framework for assessing Trudeau’s legacy. Delacourt balanced policy audits with psychological profiling, contrasting his early optimism with pandemic-era governance challenges. Her examination of youth voter engagement trends provided data-driven counterpoints to opinion-based commentary.
- The article’s "two solitudes" format became a template for cross-ideological dialogue, earning praise from the Canadian Association of Journalists for revitalizing op-ed conventions.
- Conditions are almost perfect for a snap election In this 2024 iPolitics analysis, Delacourt decoded seven threshold indicators for early elections, combining historical precedent with current polling analytics. Her "coalition calculus" matrix, visualizing party stance compatibility, became standard in pre-election reporting.
- Policy makers referenced her work during subsequent minority government negotiations, while her public engagement metrics framework influenced CBC’s election coverage architecture.
Strategic Engagement Opportunities
1. Political Branding Innovations
Delacourt consistently explores how parties adapt commercial marketing tactics, as seen in her 2023 series on AI-generated campaign imagery. Pitches should highlight novel voter outreach technologies or comparative analyses of historical campaign strategies. Reference her Shopping for Votes chapter on emotional analytics to align proposals.
2. Intergovernmental Communication Patterns
Her 2024 study of federal-provincial memorandum patterns reveals interest in subtextual diplomacy. Successful pitches will offer access to municipal-level policy coordination challenges or cross-jurisdictional crisis management case studies.
3. Journalistic Methodology Evolution
With her Carleton University teaching role, Delacourt prioritizes transparency in data journalism. Propose collaborations on fact-checking infrastructure or multimedia storytelling formats that address declining political literacy rates.
Awards and Institutional Recognition
- Charles Lynch Award (2011): The Canadian Press’s highest honor for parliamentary reporting, recognizing her 25-year track record of demystifying House procedures while maintaining critical rigor.
- Hilary Weston Prize Nomination (2014): Shortlisting for Shopping for Votes affirmed her capacity to make political science accessible, bridging academic and public discourse.
- Public Policy Forum’s Hy Solomon Award (2017): Celebrated her election reform series that informed the 2015 voting system referendum debates through innovative civic education tools.
