Heather Millar

Heather Millar is a political scientist specializing in Canadian public policy. Her research interests include provincial energy and climate politics; risk perception; policy learning and feedback; and social acceptance of new technologies.

Her research explores the role of ideas, particularly uncertainty, in shaping policy variation. She examines causal processes of policy change, investigating factors that influence policy durability and legitimacy in comparative perspective. Her current book project explores the politics of provincial hydraulic fracturing regulation in Canada.

Dr. Millar has published research articles in Canadian Public Administration, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Environmental Politics, Public Policy and Administration, Policy Sciences and Review of Policy Research.

She teaches courses on Canadian politics, comparative public policy, and environmental politics. She is affiliated with the Institute for Science, Society, and Policy at the University of Ottawa and the Environmental Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Dr. Millar holds a PhD in Political Science (University of Toronto), a Masters of Public Policy (Simon Fraser University) and a BA in English and Women’s Studies (Simon Fraser University). Previously she worked in the Canadian non-profit sector in a variety of policy areas including housing, food security, and international development.

Publications

Lesch, Matthew, and Heather Millar. 2022. “Crisis, uncertainty and urgency: processes of learning and emulation in tax policy making.” West European Politics. 45 (4) 930-952.

Janzwood, Amy, and Heather Millar. 2022. “Bridge Fuel Feuds: The Competing Interpretive Politics of Natural Gas in Canada.” Energy Research & Social Science 88 (June): 102526.

Millar, Heather. 2021. “Interjurisdictional transfer of hydraulic fracturing regulations among Canadian provinces.” In Provincial Policy Laboratories: Policy Diffusion and Transfer in Canada’s Federal System. Brendan Boyd and Andrea Olive, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 49-68.

Millar, H. (2020). Problem Uncertainty, Institutional Insularity, and Modes of Learning in Canadian Provincial Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation. Review of Policy Research.

Millar, H., E. Bourgeois, S. Bernstein and M. Hoffmann (2020). Self-reinforcing and self-undermining feedbacks in subnational climate policy implementation. Environmental Politics.

Millar, H., Davidson, A., & White, L.A. (2020). Puzzling Publics: The role of reflexive learning in universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) policy formulation in Canada and the US. Public Policy and Administration, 35(3), 312–336.

Millar, H., Lesch, M. & White, L.A. (2019). Connecting models of the individual and policy change processes: a research agenda. Policy Sciences. 52,97–118.

White, L.A., Davidson, A., Millar, H. et al (2015). Policy logics, framing strategies, and policy change: lessons from universal pre-k policy debates in California and Florida. Policy Sciences 48,395–413.

Doberstein, C. & Millar, H. (2014). Balancing a House of Cards: Throughput legitimacy in Canadian Governance Networks. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 47(2), 259-280.

Millar, H. (2013). Comparing accountability relationships between governments and non-state actors in Canadian and European international development policy. Canadian Public Administration. 56 (2), 252-269.