Partisanship, Border Proximity, and Canadian Attitudes toward North American Integration

The study of public attitudes toward continental integration has a long lineage in Canada. Still, the research literature has neglected the effect of spatial proximity to the United States. This maintains even though the cross-border trade, travel, and social ties constituting the daily reality of Canada–U.S. relations concentrate near the Canada–U.S. border. This article advances a spatially informed analysis of Canadian attitudes toward North American integration drawing on data from the Canadian Election Studies (1997–2011). The explanation it advances has three main foci: The roles of political party identification and political ideology; the role of spatial proximity to the Canada–U.S. border; and the interactive relationship between political views and border proximity.