In the energy sector of Canadian economic and political life, power has a double meaning. It is quintessentially about the generation of power and physical energy. However, it is also about political power, the energy of the economy, and thus the overall governance of Canada. Power Switch offers a critical examination of the changing nature of energy regulatory governance, with a particular focus on Canada in the larger contexts of the George W. Bush administration's aggressive energy policies and within North American energy markets.

Focusing on the key institutions and complex regimes of regulation, Bruce Doern and Monica Gattinger look at specific regulatory bodies such as the National Energy Board, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, and the Ontario Energy Board. They also examine the complex systems of rule making that develop as traditional energy regulation interacts and often collides with environmental and climate change regulation, such as the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Power Switch is one of the first accounts in many years of Canada's overall energy regulatory system.

G. Bruce Doern is a professor emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University. He is the author and co-author of numerous books on Canadian politics and policy, including Faith and Fear: The Free Trade Story, with Brian Tomlin, and Canadian Public Policy: Ideas, Structure, Process, with Richard Phidd.

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Monica Gattinger is Director of the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy, Full Professor at uOttawa’s School of Political Studies, and Chair of Positive Energy. She holds a PhD in public policy from Carleton University. Professor Gattinger’s research and engagement focus on the energy and arts/Cultural Policy sectors. Her work explores ways of strengthening governance, policy, and regulation in the context of fast-paced innovation, technological change, and markets; fundamental social and value change; and lower public trust in government, industry, science, and expertise.

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