2025 Alfred Hales Prize Awarded to Cynthia Huo
June 24, 2025
On 20 June Rhonda Moore presented the 2025 Alfred Hales Prize to Cynthia Huo, a participant of the Parliamentary Internship Program from the 2023-2024 cohort, at the 14th annual Jean-Pierre Gaboury symposium in Ottawa. Cynthia wrote a compelling and insightful paper about the role of parliamentary committees as a workplace. In so doing, Cynthia unpacked what is for many Canadians, a black box of parliamentary process.
The IOG is a longstanding supporter of the Parliamentary Internship Program and longtime sponsor of the Alfred Hales Prize which is awarded each spring at the annual Jean-Pierre Gaboury Symposium and includes a $1,000 cash prize. The competition also identifies two runners up. This year they are:
- Rodney Stehr for his paper “‘I never think about Canada as a Pacific nation, and yet we are’: Federal Policymakers Conceptualizations of the Pacific in Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy”; and,
- Ahdithya Visweswaran for his paper “ Bilinguisme à sens unique : Le monologue anglonormatif à la Chambre des communes”.
The selection committee for the 2025 Hales Prize included:
- Dr. Paul Thomas, Director, PIP and representative of the Canadian Political Science Association
- Rhonda Moore, Executive Director, Science and Innovation representing the IOG
- Liam Riley, Program Officer representing the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- Caroline Bosc, Deputy Principal Clerk, representing the House of Commons
About the Parliamentary Internship Programme (PIP). Since 1970, PIP has advanced the education of young Canadians and the development of Canadian democracy by providing 10 university graduates each year with the opportunity to work and study on Parliament Hill. During the internship, the interns each complete placements with both a government and an opposition MP, attend weekly seminars, produce original research papers, and undertake comparative study tours to legislatures across Canada and abroad. The program has supported more than 500 young Canadians since its inception in 1970. Read more about the PIP here.
About the Hales Prize. Each year, the top paper from the previous cohort is awarded the Alf Hales Prize, which is named for the late Alfred Hales, the MP for Wellington who initially proposed the parliamentary motion that led to the PIP’s creation. The author of the winning paper receives $1,000 and the runners up each receiving $500.
Jean-Pierre Gaboury was a former Director of the Parliamentary Internship Programme, and its longest serving Director. During his tenure, Jean-Pierre placed great emphasis on the academic component of the Programme that seeks to advance scholarship and public understanding of our parliamentary institutions.