Through a case-study analysis of Ontario's ethanol policy, this thesis addresses a numberof themes that are consequential to policy and policy-making: spatiality, democracy anduncertainty. First, I address the 'spatial debate' in Geography pertaining to the relevanceand affordances of a 'scalar' versus a 'flat' ontoepistemology. I argue that policy isguided by prior arrangements, but is by no means inevitable or predetermined. As such,scale and network are pragmatic geographical concepts that can effectively address theissue of the spatiality of policy and policy-making. Second, I discuss the democraticnature of policy-making in Ontario through an examination of the spaces of engagementthat facilitate deliberative democracy. I analyze to what extent these spaces fit intoOntario's environmental policy-making process, and to what extent they were used byvarious stakeholders. Last, I take seriously the fact that uncertainty and unavoidableinjustice are central to policy, and examine the ways in which this uncertainty shaped thespecifics of Ontario's ethanol policy. Ultimately, this thesis is an exercise inunderstanding sub-national environmental policy-making in Canada, with an emphasis onhow policy-makers tackle the issues they are faced with in the context of environmentalchange, political-economic integration, local priorities, individual goals, and irreducibleuncertainty.
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