Book Review: At the Centre of Government - Critiquing the Canadian Political System

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
Political Science
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The purpose of the following paper is to highlight upon the book written by Ian Brodle on
the perspective of the Canadian politics. The complications in the political scenario of Canada
will be discovered and the points made by the author will be covered. This book is one of the
most useful documents to bring out the changes in the politics of Canada. The author has brought
out several crucial factors within the politics of Canada and he has evidently discussed the strong
and weak points in this scenario. Ian Brodle has been a very successful professor of Political
Science and he has also worked as the Chief of Staff for the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen
Harper. Many reforms have taken place in the Canadian politics in the last few years and the
main purpose of these reforms have always been to look after the issues of the national
development. In this paper, the main arguments made by the author will be brought out properly
indeed.
Review of the Book
Before beginning the review of this book, the important factors should be brought out
regarding the article of Donald J. Savoie named the Rise of Court Government in Canada
(Savoie, 1999). In this article, several crucial issues could be found as these are quite crucial for
the understanding of the changes in the Canadian political system over the years. In this article ,
many opposing things have been written down as the challenge against the long running
conventions or traditions about the working procedure of the Federal Government system of
Canada. According to the author of this article, it has been said that the main source of power in
Canada remained in the hands of the Prime Minister and some selected persons by him (Savoie,
1999). These people used to work with the cabinet members of the Canadian parliament. In this

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article, the main forces that have aggravated the rise of the court government in Canada have
been discussed properly.
New policy instruments have been found along with several administrative tools. These
tools are quite important to be noted as the potential decision makers in the system. In the words
of the author, the decision-making process in the Canadian Government lies in the hands of the
different policy concerns, factors of national unity organizations, potential role of the lobbyists
and social media to influence the decision making (Savoie, 1999). The author has set forth the
fact that role of social media is immense in the globalization of national policies to be
implemented by the Government.
This is why it one of the most impressive factors to be discussed how national unity can
be gained by the role of the government. The new policies will have to be implemented and old
policies will have to be reshaped for better results for the people of the country. These changes
are very important from several sections. If the Canadian government undertakes these changes,
it will provide better services to the people of the country (Savoie, 1999). Now, the author has
put some evident issues that can point at the current crisis for the Canadian Government. These
crises and other factors regarding unsuccessful policy implementations have been put up by the
Ian Brodle in his book At the Centre of Government (Brodie, 2018).
In this book, the author has evidently made the remark in the book as “Canada’s Prime
Minister is a dictator”. He has gone on to criticize the Government in a very rude manner much
like Donal J. Savoie. This is evident as he has very boldly said that the cabinet of Canada is dead.
He has also asserted his opinion that Parliament is also dead besides cabinet. The cabinet of the
country has turned into the focus group of the Canadian Prime minister. According to the author