Dan started his polling career at Pollara in 2008, staying up overnight to crunch the numbers for federal election tracking. Since then, he’s been conducting research for elections of all types and sizes.

In 2014, he joined the Trudeau Liberals as their Lead Research Strategist, overseeing the party’s research in the lead up to and during their historic third-to-first 2015 election victory. He moderated focus groups, led the nightly tracking, and used his seat projection model to map the path to government. And he did it all again when they were re-elected in 2019 and 2021.

Following the 2015 election, Dan joined the Prime Minister’s Office senior staff, as Director of Research & Advertising. Through this role, he led the Government of Canada’s extensive quantitative and qualitative research program, keeping tabs on what mattered to “real people” outside the Parliament Hill bubble.

Dan joined PoliSci in 2022. Since then, he has conducted public opinion research for political parties in 6 provinces and 1 territory, including for Susan Holt in the lead-up to and during her 2024 New Brunswick election victory. During his research career, he has polled for over 20 candidates in municipal elections and conducted over 100 riding surveys for local candidates in federal and provincial elections.

Dan is a frequent media commentator on politics and since 2022 he has taught a course on Election Campaigns at Carleton University as part of the Masters in Political Management program.

By combining his political experience and polling expertise, Dan provides PoliSci clients with actionable recommendations on how to win.