Picture of Charles Smith

Charles Smith Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Graduate Supervisor in Political Studies
STM Faculty Member in Political Studies

Office
St. Thomas More 220

Research Area(s)

  • Working-Class Politics
  • Labour Unions
  • Political Economy
  • Canadian Politics
  • Provincial Politics
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms

About me

Charles Smith (Ph.D York) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan.  His research interests include Canadian and International political economy, public law, labour unions and federal and provincial public policy. He is the author of Transforming Provincial Politics (2015) and Unions in Court: Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (2017). He has also authored numerous articles on Saskatchewan Politics, Labour in Court and Labour History. Charles is also co-editor of Canada's foremost labour studies journal Labour/Le Travail.  He is also the husband to Allison and proud father of twin boys, Dylan and Jonah.

Publications


CO-EDITOR

Labour/Le Travail (2016-Present)

BOOKS

Charles W. Smith (with Craig Heron). The Canadian Labour Movement: A Short History (4th ed).  (Toronto: Lorimer, 2020).  

Charles W. Smith (with Larry Savage). Unions in Court: Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2017).  

Charles W. Smith (with Bryan Evans) (editors). The Transformation of Provincial Politics: The Political Economy of Canada’s Provinces and Territories in a Neoliberal Era. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015).

PAPERS IN REFEREED JOURNALS

(With Daniel Paré),"Free to express yourself online while off-duty? Tracing jurisdictional expressions of shifting workplace boundaries in Canada," Information, Communication, Society, (2022), DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2085613 

Jacob Albin Korem Alhassan, Charles Smith and Lori Hanson, "Politics, transportation, and the people’s health: a socio-political autopsy of the demise of a 70-year-old bus company," Critical Public Health (2021)

"Class Struggle from Above: The Canadian State, Industrial Legality, and (the Never-Ending Usage of) Back-to-Work Legislation," Labour/Le Travail 86 (2020): 109-122. 

"The Ghosts of Wagnerism: Organized Labour, Union Strategies, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," Canadian Journal of Law and Society (2019): 99-120.

(With Andrew Stevens) "The architecture of modern anti-unionism in Canada: Class struggle and the erosion of workers’ collective freedoms," Capital & Class (2018): 1-23.

"Freedom of association and the political economy of rights: the collective freedoms of workers after SFL v. Saskatchewan," Studies in Political Economy 98 (2017): 124-150.  

“We Didn’t Want to Totally Break the Law:” Industrial Legality, the Pepsi Strike, and Workers’ Collective Rights in Canada,” Labour/Le Travail 74 (2014): 89-121.

(With Lorne Sossin) “The Politics of Transparency and Independence before Administrative Boards.” Saskatchewan Law Review 75 (2012): 13-53.

“The Politics of the Ontario Labour Relations Act: Business, Labour, and Government in the Consolidation of Post-War Industrial Relations, 1949-1961,” Labour/Le Travail 62 (Fall 2008): 109-151.

(With Lorne Sossin) “Hard Choices and Soft Law: Ethical Codes, Policy Guidelines and the Role of the Courts in Regulating Government,” University of Alberta Law Review 40:4 (2002): 867-893. 

NON-REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

(With Joan Sangster), "Working Class Histories: Cross Boarder Dialogue," Scottish Journal of Labour History, 56 (2021), 126-138.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

(With Lisa Wanlin), "Class Power and Legal Coercion in the Regina Refinery Lockout," in Emily Eaton, Andrew Stevens, and Sean Tucker eds., Unjust Transition: The Future of Fossil Fuel Workers (Halifax: Fernwood, 2024). 

(With Alison Braley-Rattai) "Class Struggle Goes to Court: Workers’ Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Workers’ Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," in Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage eds., Rethinking the Politics of Labour, 2nd Edition (Halifax: Fernwood, 2021). 

(With Andrew Stevens) "The Erosion of Workers’ Rights in Saskatchewan: The Sask Party, Labour Law Reform and Organized Labour, 2007–2020," in JoAnn Jaffe, Patricia W. Elliott and Cora Sellers eds., Divided: Populism, Polarization and Power in the New Saskatchewan (Halifax: Fernwood, 2021). 

"The State, Trade Union Freedoms and the Impasse of Working-Class Power in Canada," in Greg Albo, Stephen Maher, and Alan Zuege eds., State Transformations: Classes, Strategy, Socialism (London: Brill, 2021), 223-246.

"Political Economy and the Canadian Working Class: Conflict, Crisis, and Change," in Heather Whiteside ed., Canadian Political Economy (Toronto: Unversity of Toronto Press, 2020), 145-172.

"Active Incrementalism and the Politics of Austerity in the "New Saskatchewan," in Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli eds., The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity: Perspectives from Canada's Provinces and Territories  (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018), 71-100

(With Bryan Evans) “The Transformation of Ontario Politics: The Long Ascent of Neoliberalism,” in Bryan Evans and Charles W. Smith eds., The Transformation of Provincial Politics: The Political Economy of Canada’s Provinces and Territories in a Neoliberal Era (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 162-191.

(With Larry Savage) “Public Sector Unions and Electoral Politics in Canada,” in S. Ross and L. Savage eds., Public Sector Unions in the Age of Austerity (Halifax: Fernwood, 2013), 46-56.

“Labour, courts and the erosion of workers’ rights in Canada,” in Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage eds., Rethinking The Politics of Labour in Canada (Halifax: Fernwood, 2012), 184-197. 

“The “New Normal” in Saskatchewan: Neoliberalism and the Challenge to Workers Rights,” in David McGrane ed., New Directions in Saskatchewan Public Policy (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2011), 121-152.  

Teaching & Supervision

Selection of Courses Taught (by Year)

  • 2013 - INTS 400: Social Justice and the Common Good
  • 2013 - Pols 303: Public Law in Canada
  • 2014 - Pols 304: Democracy and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • 2014 - Pols 362: Global Political Economy
  • 2014 - Pols 303.3 Public Law in Canada
  • 2014 - Pols 205.3 Politics in Canada
  • 2015 - INTS 400.3 Social Justice and the Common Good
  • 2015 - Pols 362.3 Global Political Economy

Research

Canadian Politics Charter of Rights Labour Unions Law and Politics Political Economy Provincial Politics


  • Working-Class Politics
  • Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Law, Politics and Collective Bargaining in Canada
  • Canadian Provincial Politics
  • Western Canada

Awards & Honours

  • Insight Development Grant, awarded by SSHRC September 2012-September 2014