Himself a graduate of the B.PAPM, Dr. David Coletto was appointed an adjunct professor of the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs in May 2012. In the Fall term of 2012 he will teach the capstone seminar for the Strategic Public Opinion and Policy Analysis specialization of the B.PAPM.
Dr. Coletto leads Abacus Data’s team of research consultants and strategists, delivering strategic advice and research design expertise to some of Canada’s leading corporations, advocacy groups, and political leaders. Abacus Data specializes in helping organizations to connect and engage with millennials (Canadians born after 1980) and to develop evidence-based strategies to enhance corporate consciousness and responsibility.
Dr. Coletto has more than six years experience working in the marketing research industry. He has conducted research studies for organizations in many sectors including pharmaceutical, transportation, educational, telecommunications, natural resources, media, arts and cultural, tourism, and retail. He has also advised elected officials and senior-level decision makers at the federal, provincial, and municipal government levels.
A proud B.PAPM alumnus (’04), Dr. Coletto is a graduate of the Strategic Public Opinion and Policy Analysis (SPOPA) stream in the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carleton University. He also earned at Master of Arts degree in Political Science from Carleton University.
After working for a major public opinion firm and a government relations consultancy, Dr. Coletto moved west to Calgary to pursue further graduate studies.
Earning a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Calgary in 2010,Dr. Coletto’s dissertation research examined candidates who run in Canadian general elections and looked at how the qualities of candidates and the local conditions in which they run affect the outcome of campaigns. He is also one of Canada’s leading scholars on party and election finance. His research on Canadian elections and political parties has been cited in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Hill Times, and the Toronto Star. He wrote a chapter with Munroe Eagles on local party organization in Lisa Young and Harold Jansen’s edited volume Money, Politics and Democracy: Assessing the Impact of Canada’s Party Finance Reform UBC Press, 2011 and a forthcoming article on the impact of election finance reform on political party organization in the Canadian Journal of Political Science (with Lisa Young and Harold Jansen).
He is currently a regular columnist with The Hill Times, and his research with Abacus Data has appeared in print, on the radio, and on television. He is resident pollster for Sun News.