Canada Votes: How We Elect Our Government. Rev. ed.

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian of the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

This book’s popular writing style and cartoon illustrations seem
appropriate for its (stipulated) intended audience of children aged 10
to 14. Other aspects of its structure, however, seem likely to confound
rather than enlighten that audience.

On the first page, for example, the author uses the terms
“Cabinet,” “House,” and “Senate” with absolutely no
explanation. Discussion proceeds in a series of short chapters whose
confusing sequence defies logic. One must wade through five chapters of
discussion on such issues as who can vote and what is the voters list
and the elections map before arriving at any kind of explanation of the
terms “party” or “parliament.” Chapters about election cheating,
suffrage, and the rules of campaigning beg to be grounded on a brief but
solid explanation of the government that the election process is trying
to achieve. One is forced to conclude that efforts to be trendy and
appealing to the target age group have resulted in an illogical maze of
information that strongly undercuts the book’s appeal.

This book undoubtedly has a role, but it certainly should not be handed
to a young reader without explanation or background information. It
might function as a support for group discussion, but it will alienate
more readers that it enlightens if used for independent study. Not a
first-choice purchase.