Fleming's Canadian Legislatures, 1997

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is also the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the
Peaceable Kingdom, and the co-author of Invisible and Inaudible in
Washington: American Policies Toward Canada.

This collection of essays is the 18th in a series of biennial editions.
Most of the contributors teach political science at Ontario
universities, although David Taras hails from the University of Calgary
and Gary Moncrief from Boise State University in Idaho. Together they
have compiled, through prose and tables of statistics, a formidable
collection of data on members of Parliament, Canadian senators, and
members of provincial legislatures. Some comparative information about
state legislators in the United States is also available.

The first chapter deals with pay for MPs and their provincial and
territorial counterparts. By 1996, Ontario MPPs earned more ($78,007)
than federal MPs ($64,400); statistics from 1981 and 1987 show federal
MPs and senators at the top of the scale and Quebec MNAs in second
place.

Subsequent chapters demonstrate the difficulties of a career in
politics. The turnover rate from election to election is significantly
greater in Canada than the United States, where incumbents usually win
re-election. The federal election of 1993 was particularly brutal. While
a turnover rate of 25 to 40 percent is not unusual, in 1993 some 25
percent of incumbents chose not to run for re-election and another 45
percent went down to defeat. Authors David C. Docherty and Judith
McKenzie Oakes agree with the finding that “[v]oters have weak
partisan attachments.” Moreover, relatively few parliamentary
assistants become cabinet ministers and, in 1996, no aboriginals sat in
the legislatures of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Quebec, and British Columbia (the highest number held seats in the
legislatures of Manitoba, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories).
Female members ranged from a high of 26.7 percent in Prince Edward
Island to a low of 8.3 in the Northwest Territories. Although many women
have won their parties’ leadership, only Catherine Callbeck of Prince
Edward Island managed to lead her party to victory in an ensuing general
election.

The book also includes the memoirs of a parliamentary librarian (Erik
J. Spicer) and information about media coverage, standing committees,
offices and officers. There are detailed accounts of the most recent
elections in each jurisdiction. Fleming’s Canadian Legislatures, 1997,
should appeal to anyone who loves to follow politics and is a mandatory
acquisition for any serious library.