Category: Book Review

Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 37 No 2

Article 12 / 14 , Vol 37 No 2 (Summer)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

Gendered News: Media Coverage and Electoral Politics in Canada by Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, UBC Press, Vancouver, 2013, 246p.

In early February, Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland rose to ask her first question in the House of Commons. For most new MPs, that initiation is usually a proud, if intimidating, milestone. For Freeland, who had won a tough Toronto by-election in November, it was a test of fortitude. The former business journalist was asking about the prospects for Canada’s economic recovery when the Conservative heckling commenced. The Speaker interceded twice but the mostly male voices jeered more loudly. On her third try, Freeland finished a truncated query. Shortly after a federal minister replied with a stock answer, Vancouver Observer journalist D. Matthew Millar offered his advice: “Put on your “big girl” voice for [for Question Period],” he tweeted, “the Hon. Members water glasses are shattering.”[sic]

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Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 37 No 1

Article 8 / 10 , Vol 37 No 1 (Spring)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

Imperfect Democracies: The Democratic Deficit in Canada and the United States by Patti Tamara Lenard and Richard Simeon, UBC Press, Vancouver, 2013, 360pp.

Reforming the Senate, ensuring backbench MPs have a voice, alternative voting systems to first-past-the-post, and election finance reform are all issues that Canadians have debated since our inception as a nation. Likewise, the power of the executive branch, a do-nothing congress, political finance & Super PACs, and reforming the legal system have preoccupied policy-makers in the US. In each case, these reforms are debated on the basis that they will, or will not, help to create a more democratic society.

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Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 36 No 4

Article 11 / 13 , Vol 36 No 4 (Winter)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

The Voice of the Backbenchers: The 1922 Committee By Philip Norton, Conservative History Group, London, 2013, 86 p.

Canada and the United Kingdom supposedly share a similar form of government known as the Westminster Model but the argument can be made that we follow it in name only. The reason is not our federal constitution or the limits on parliamentary sovereignty imposed by the Canadian Charter and the Supreme Court or any other obvious constitutional distinction.

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Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 36 No 3

Article 9 / 11 , Vol 36 No 3 (Autumn)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

Across the Aisle: Opposition in Canadian Politics by David E. Smith

Not satisfied with a Triple Crown for his previous three works on the Crown, the Senate and the House of Commons, David Smith has gone for the Grand Slam with this work on parliamentary opposition. In some ways this is his most important work partly because so little has been written about the subject but mainly because of the insight it offers not only into the murky waters of opposition and also the ongoing constitutional struggle betweem advocates of classical Westminster style responsible government and those who are more radical democrats.

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Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 36 No1

Article 10 / 12 , Vol 36 No 1 (Spring)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

Challenges of Minority Governments in Canada, by Marc Gervais, Ottawa, Invenire Books, 2012.

Canadian academic literature on minority government is sparse considering there have been nine such instances at the federal level since 1957 and many more in the provinces. Peter Russell (Two Cheers for Minority Government, 2008) painted a rosy picture of possible benefits while others have taken a more critical view in light of recent experience.

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Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 35 No 4

Article 11 / 13 , Vol 35 No 4 (Winter)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th Edition, edited by Harry Evens and Rosemary Laing, Canberra: Department of the Senate, 2012, 942 p.

The publication of Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th edition is a wonderful tribute to James Rowland Odgers, Clerk of the Australian Senate from 1965 to 1979, and to Harry Evens, also Clerk of the Senate from 1988 to 2009. Odgers, who began compiling this parliamentary authority in 1953, edited five versions of the book with the sixth being produced in 1991 following his death but based on material he had prepared. Evens, the longest serving Senate Clerk, wrote all subsequent editions, co-editing the thirteenth with the current Senate Clerk, Dr. Rosemary Laing who has had twenty-two years’ experience working in the Senate. The book will undoubtedly prove invaluable to their President and committee chairs, assisting them to resolve questions on how their legislature should proceed on the business before them as well as to students of constitutionalism who monitor the Senate as to how well it fulfills its constitutional functions vis-à-vis the executive, the House of Representatives and the judiciary.

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Parliamentary Bookshelf Vol 35 No 2

Article 9 / 9 , Vol 35 No 2 (Summer)

Parliamentary Bookshelf

The Evolving Canadian Crown, by Jennifer Smith and D. Michael Jackson, Montréal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012, 248 pages.

In this year of the Diamond Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II, who succeeded to the throne at the young age of 25 in 1952 following the premature death of her father, King George VI, is celebrating sixty years on the throne. The Queen’s reign has been by most measures a great success. Despite the tremendous changes which have occurred in the United Kingdom, Canada and the Commonwealth over the last sixty years, the Queen and “The Firm” (the other members of the Royal Family) have, with only a few notable false steps, demonstrated a remarkable capacity to adapt to ever-changing circumstances and expectations.

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Article 9 / 12 , Vol 34 No 4 (Winter)

Parliamentary Book Shelf

 Tony Blair, A Journey, London, Arrow Books, paperback edition, 2011, p. 718.

This book continues the tradition of British prime ministers reminiscing at the end of their careers about their lives and legacy. John Major, Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Ramsay MacDonald, Lloyd George, Arthur James Balfour, not to mention Winston Churchill, Robert Peel and Robert Walpole, all wrote memoirs.

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Parliamentary Book Shelf

Article 8 / 11 , Vol 34 No 2 (Summer)

Parliamentary Book Shelf

The Saudi Majlis Ash-Shura: Its National & International Roles by Dr. Mohammed Abdullah Al-Muhanna , Riyadh, 2009, 212 pages.

With the increased attention being given to the Middle East and their insurgent revolutions demanding more open and democratic societies, it is extremely beneficial to have up-to-date scholarly books pulling back the curtain on the legislative institutions within these autocratic regimes so we can learn more about their formal powers, how they are structured and operate, and how they relate to the broader civil society. Dr. Al-Muhanna, was born and still lives in Riyadh and has graduate degrees from George Washington University (U.S.A) and Durham University (U.K.). He has given us an excellent overview of one of the world’s most intriguing parliamentary chambers, Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council.

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