Public Policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy | University of Toronto

Donna Dasko is one of Canada’s best known pollsters and one of the country’s newest independent senators. In June 2018, she was appointed to the Senate to sit as an independent senator. During her career as Senior Vice-President of Environics Research Group Ltd, she played a crucial role in building the firm into one of Canada’s leading research and consulting organizations, and took a leadership role in bringing opinion analysis to bear on some of this country’s most important public policy and communications issues. Working primarily with public-sector clients, she led major research studies in areas including federal and provincial budget priorities, the economy, national unity, Quebec sovereignty, political choice, health promotion, tobacco control, and many others.

She is a leader in developing election polling and media-sponsored polling. She worked with The Globe and Mail to develop the Globe-Environics Poll, and co-authored over 40 published articles in The Globe and Mail. She led the CBC- Environics polling program for federal elections and feature polling assignments from 1993 to 2008, and appeared regularly on CBC television and radio broadcasts, including on election night in 2004 and as a regular panelist on Power and Politics in the 2011 federal election.

She is co-founder and Past National Chair of Equal Voice, a non-partisan organization with chapters across the country, dedicated to electing more women to public office in Canada. She has served as director of several other non-profit organizations.

She often speaks publicly, including as a media commentator and to students and organizations on topics such as trends in public opinion, social change, political institutions, and women in politics.

She has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Statistics Canada Advisory Committee on Social Conditions and provides ongoing advice to Stats Can on the Canadian census and all of its social surveys.

Courses Taught
PPG2013H:
Topics in Public Policy: Public Opinion and Policy Making