On December 1 2017, Mr. Mitchell Dowie, a graduate student in the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Political Studies, successfully defended his MA thesis titled “A Dangerous World: Stephen Harper’s Post-Maidan Ukraine Policy.” Focusing on Canada’s relations with Ukraine in the immediate post-Maidan period, the thesis seeks to explain the fervency in Canada’s support for Ukraine under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. The study examines and assesses the ways in which various factors at the system, domestic, and individual levels helped shape the Harper government’s response, emphasizing the role that ideology played in lending a particular quality to the government’s position at the time.
Mr. Dowie was awarded a PCUH Graduate Thesis Scholarship to write the thesis. The study was undertaken as part of the PCUH’s Canada-Ukraine Initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to nurture and encourage a wider understanding of current Canada-Ukraine relations at the governmental and non-governmental level.