Protecting Canadian Democracy: the Senate You Never Knew by Senator Serge Joyal.

• Author: Docherty, David

Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew by Senator Serge Joyal, Canadian Centre for Management Development, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, 2003, 371 p.

The Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective, David E. Smith, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London, 2003, 263 p.

Discussion of Senate reform has quelled somewhat since the days of the Meech Lake Accord and after that the Reform Party cry for a "Triple E" upper chamber. But it has never been completely set on the back burner of democratic discussion in Canada. There is little question that like votes for licenced restaurants in dry areas, there will always be a strong undercurrent of support for change when it comes to the Senate of Canada.

This is fine and indeed part of a vibrant democratic debate. But advocates of reform should bear in mind that well intentioned change might produce ill conceived consequences. This is no less true of the Senate than it is of any other state institution.

Interested observers of reform are therefore well served with the recent publication of two important and timely volumes on the Senate of Canada. One, a single authored monograph by University of Saskatchewan's David Smith, looks at the Senate in comparative perspective. The other, an edited volume by Senator Serge Joyal, blends academic analysis with the views of practitioners of the upper chamber themselves. Both should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in Senate reform. A careful reading of both volumes should act as a check on the momentary passion of reformers. There is nothing wrong with reform, but let's make sure we now what we are changing and why.

This is the second in what one hopes is a trilogy of Smith's studies of parliament. After completing his examination of the crown, and the republican option, Smith has now turned his attention to the Senate. The book, The Canadian Senate in Comparative Perspective, is broad in scope, and it primary aim is neither to unduly criticize nor support the Senate, but rather to help us understand this understudied legislature, and how it is still capable of "defining Canada's all embracing identity" (p. 20).

Smith begins his analysis by first explaining why second chambers are not a research area unto themselves, in the manner of most other political institutions. The largest problem is the lack of uniformity of upper houses. Many jurisdictions have eliminated second chambers...