{"id":110243,"date":"2026-06-10T10:55:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=110243"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:35:55","slug":"from-theory-to-practice-new-grad-to-support-local-elections-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/06\/from-theory-to-practice-new-grad-to-support-local-elections-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"From theory to practice: New grad to support local elections this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

What started as capstone to Jackson Tinker\u2019s university career has turned into a launching pad for a career in government and politics \u2014 and a front row seat to the municipal elections taking place in Ontario in October.<\/p>\n

When Tinker first considered doing an internship during the final year of Brock University\u2019s undergraduate Political Science program, he wondered if he could find a role that would suit his goal of working in politics and his interest in serving communities.<\/p>\n

He shared his aspirations with Associate Professor of Political Science Nicole Goodman, who taught the fourth-year internship course this winter. Goodman, in turn, reached out to Brock graduate Justin Paylove (BA \u201920, MA \u201921), who serves as Manager of Legislative Services and Clerk with the Township of West Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Paylove, who credits Goodman with creating experiential learning opportunities that helped him launch his own successful career and continues to work with her on research initiatives, says he was keen to bring a Political Science student into his office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love working with the University, as we get to be involved with innovative research, and I get to provide opportunities to students that were afforded to me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The internship provided an array of experiences that helped Tinker fully understand the extent to which municipal government affects the lives of constituents.<\/p>\n

\"Two

Justin Paylove (BA \u201920, MA \u201921), left, and Jackson Tinker (BA \u201926) at the Township of West Lincoln, where Paylove supervised Tinker during an internship this winter.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say I underestimated how much was actually governed at the municipal level, compared to the provincial or federal level,\u201d he says. \u201cIn one of my previous classes we learned that somewhere between 70 and 80 per cent of the regulations that people interact with are run at the municipal level, and during my internship, I really got to see how many different services the township provides.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an intern, his time was divided between election-related tasks and support for the Clerk, whether updating files, digitizing existing bylaws or carefully processing Freedom of Information requests.<\/p>\n

Tinker says his undergraduate course work served him in good stead when tackling these tasks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy local government class equipped me to understand some of the flows of council and how the strong mayor powers that were recently introduced changes the dynamic of council,\u201d says Tinker. \u201cOther courses I\u2019ve taken got a little bit more into the law side of politics, so when going through all the bylaws, I felt more comfortable with the legal language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been hired on as a full-time Election Assistant following his placement, Tinker continues to work on supporting preparation, procedures and implementation in the run-up to the fall municipal election.<\/p>\n

Paylove says Jackson has proven to be \u201ca fantastic addition\u201d to the Municipality\u2019s small but mighty team.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting a fresh perspective is one of the biggest advantages of working with someone tied in with the academic side like Jackson was,\u201d says Paylove. \u201cContinuing my education and learning from someone who was still on the academic side of our world provided new insights into how I plan on operating my upcoming Municipal election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodman, who develops experiential learning opportunities in the majority of her courses, says it has been \u201cincredibly rewarding\u201d to watch this internship unfold.<\/p>\n

“Justin was once a student in my courses, and now he\u2019s mentoring the next generation of Brock Political Science students into careers in the public service,\u201d she says. \u201cThese kinds of partnerships bring learning into practice, making experiential learning meaningful for our students, the community and the University.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What started as capstone to Jackson Tinker\u2019s university career has turned into a launching pad for a career in government and politics \u2014 and a front row seat to the municipal elections taking place in Ontario in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":110256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9794,1,38],"tags":[156,4104,4811,522,15169,15170,5930,1759,15157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110243"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110260,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110243\/revisions\/110260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}