Parliament at the Literary Review

The June 2017 Literary Review of Canada includes my review of two books on parliamentary reform: Turning Parliament Inside Out: Practical Ideas for Reforming Canada’s Democracy, edited by sitting MPs Michael Chong, Scott Simms and Kennedy Stewart; and The Unbroken Machine: Canada’s Democracy in Action by journalist and blogger Dale Smith.

The review is currently subscribers-only online. But there's a pretty good summary of the whole in the title the review gave it: "A Very, Very Modest Proposal; Can a microscopically small-ball approach accomplish political reform?" 

I liked both books for considering that parliament -- rather than say, the constitution or the electoral system -- can be a plausible site for reform. But they might have pushed that idea farther.

Also:  Bob Rae on the Air India tragedy/crime, and Dylan Reid on Richard Florida's second thoughts on "the creative class," but not much on the CanHist front this time.