Canadian Contra

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Making the case against mindless tinkering.

May 16, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 33 • By KELLY JANE TORRANCE

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Pepall isn’t wholly conclusive. As a teenager I worked with the fledgling Reform party, which campaigned for a Triple-E Senate—equal, elected, and effective. (“Equal” meant that each province would have the same number of senators, as in the American system.) Layton is right; the Senate is a conglomerate of cronyism. But as leaders of every party promise reform, Against Reform is sorely needed. John Pepall is a masterful guide through the thicket, and a wry one, too. As he notes, echoing Yeats, “Some advocates of reform are full of passionate intensity.”

Kelly Jane Torrance, a native of Edmonton, Alberta, is an assistant editor at The Weekly Standard and movie critic of the Washington Examiner.