B. Timothy Heinmiller - Water Policy Reform in Southern Alberta: An Advocacy Coalition Approach

This project began its life during the year I spent as a postdoctoral fellow at the Economic Policy Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario in 20045. During this time, I benefited from the guidance of Drs Jim Davies, Andrew Sancton, and Robert Young, as well as the many faculty and students who provided feedback on my research presentations, the ideas for which eventually fed into this book. A special thanks also goes to Dr Robert Young and his Canada Research Chair for helping to fund some of my early research travel.

The bulk of the work for this book was undertaken during my time in the Political Science Department at Brock University, as an assistant/associate professor. Brocks Office of Research Services played an instrumental role in helping me to craft the application that secured the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) standard research grant that supported this research. Brocks research librarians, especially Heather Whipple and Colleen Beard, also provided invaluable and much-appreciated assistance in helping me track down obscure, out-of-province information and data sources. I also need to acknowledge the assistance of my departmental colleagues and my colleagues in the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, with whom I explored ideas and discussed the finer points of my research methodology. Drs Matt Hennigar and Ryan Plummer deserve specific mention and thanks, in this regard. I also need to thank the plethora of Brock students, both graduate and undergraduate, who patiently listened to my self-indulgent research stories and were ever-ready with constructive, critical feedback on my work.

Key contributors to the development of this book, some of whom I have never met, were the librarians throughout Alberta who granted me access to their collections and/or arranged for inter-library loans. In particular, I owe a hearty thanks to the unknown librarian at the University of Alberta who consented to my inter-library loan request for over thirty volumes of transcripts from water hearings in the 1970s and 1980s. This single act of kindness made the entire research project possible. Id also like to thank Doug Cass at the Glenbow Museum Library in Calgary for granting me access to their collection and for serving as a hospitable host during the week I spent there.

All research endeavours ultimately run on money, and I owe a great deal of thanks to those who funded this project. The largest funder was the SSHRC, whose funding afforded me the travel and student assistance that were essential to this project. Another key funder was the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University, who provided funding to hire a second coder for the content-analysis portion of the research. This funding came at a critical moment in the project and is greatly appreciated.

I was fortunate to have excellent student research assistants on this project, all of them drawn from Brocks Masters Program in Political Science. Kristian Laughlin and Alexandra Swigger assisted on some of the early research, helping me to put Albertas water policy reforms into context with what was happening in similar jurisdictions. Sydney Dick served as the intrepid second coder for the content analysis and did a fantastic job familiarizing herself with Alberta water issues and mastering the coding frame.

An extremely important group in my research were my interviewees. I am constantly amazed at the willingness of such busy and important individuals to make time for me and to share their policy development experiences. Without these many kindnesses, my research would have suffered greatly, and I would like to express my appreciation to each of you, even though I cannot name you individually.

As this book started to take shape, it was influenced by the feedback I received from papers presented at research conferences, including the annual general meetings of the Canadian Political Science Association and the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration. I also received very useful feedback on the research in chapter 6 from anonymous reviewers at the Canadian Journal of Political Science, and I thank them for that. Daniel Quinlan also provided useful and encouraging feedback on each chapter as they were being written, for which I must thank him.

Finally, I need to acknowledge the silent partner in this endeavour, my wife Ann. This book was a personal and professional odyssey for me and only she knows what went into its writing. I could not have completed it without her constant and unwavering support.

Oh, and I cannot forget Belle, the ninety-pound Bernese Mountain Dog who snored at my feet during the writing of the entire manuscript. I do not think I will ever read this book without associating it with her.