Political Science at UWindsor

Alex Lusty

This is one in a series of testimonials from Political Science and International Relations graduates and how they've put their degrees to work.

For more on our current students and alumni, please visit our Students and Alumni page.

Alex Lusty (MA, 2012)Alex Lusty (MA, 2012) chose Windsor's graduate program in Political Science because it complemented his earlier studies at Waterloo School of Urban Planning, where he first developed an interest in virtual participation and "e-democracy" in land use decision-making. The MA program at Windsor allowed Alex to not only explore urban and local politics generally, but also how the urban scale of decision making relates to regional, national, and global politics. Alex’s major research paper, titled "Pursuing the Quarry: E-democracy in Small Town Ontario," combined urban and political theory to examine online discussions of resistance to a major quarry development proposal just outside the Greater Toronto Area. The unique path of study Alex took, combining his background in environmental studies, GIS, and urban planning with the study of local politics and e-democracy, demonstrates the flexibility of graduate study in Political Science at Windsor.

Following completion of his MA in fall 2012, Alex returned to his career as a planning consultant where his undergraduate and graduate experience and training are put to daily use. As a consulting planner, Alex advises public and private sector clients on a variety of development proposals including aggregate, commercial, and residential developments. As a planner, he also assists public sector clients in the development of policy and law to guide land use planning and governance. Planning, as an interdisciplinary profession, requires Alex to liaise with federal and provincial organizations and other professionals in order to understand all facets of a land development issue. The political insights and knowledge Alex gained through his MA degree program has allowed him to pursue planning projects that require an advanced knowledge of institutions, government, and public administration in Canada, and prepared him well for a career in an expanding and important field.