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BOOK REVIEW - A Grand Tour of the Legislatures

The Sunday Herald. Nov 21, 2010

By PAUL W BENNETT

Building for Democracy: The History and Architecture of the Legislative Buildings of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick
James W. Macnutt, Formac Publishing, Soft Cover, 128 pages, $24.95

Touring Houses of Parliament has always been one of my favourite pastimes. Virtually every holiday or conference visit to a city begins, for me, with an obligatory public tour of the provincial legislative building or state capital. It started, believe it or not, on my honeymoon. After the official tours, I often return, surreptitiously, for a closer look at the inner sanctums, closed to the general public. Five years ago. I added the Quebec National Assembly to my list of “personal conquests” on a blustery freezing cold March afternoon. More recently, I set foot in the Newfoundland House and completed my cross-Canada sojourn. With that visit, I could claim to have paid my respects to all ten of Canada’s provincial legislatures.

That is why the prospect of reviewing James W. Macnutt's latest book, Building for Democracy, stirred my normally restrained sense of excitement. It may be just another attractive "tea-table" book, but it is exquisitely produced by Formac Publishing of Halifax, and it pays proper homage to our worthy tradition of British parliamentary democracy.

Author James Macnutt, a Charlottetown lawyer by profession, simply loves touring and writing about heritage houses and historic buildings. After being bitten by the heritage bug, he began to collect historic maps and then co-authored a 2006 book (with Robert Tuck) entitled Heritage Houses of Prince Edward Island. In 2009, he performed another valuable service by producing The Historical Atlas of Prince Edward Island. With his latest offering, he branches out to neighbouring provinces with vivid portraits of the Maritimes’ three historic legislative buildings. Reading Building for Democracy is the next best thing to actually touring the provincial houses. Macnutt provides a short overview of the British legislative assembly tradition, written from a notably Whiggish perspective. To him, the buildings remain noble monuments to “an open, accessible and accountable democracy” which operates “for the good of the people.” (p. 7) The pristine photographs by Michael Needham serve to add lustre and majesty to what Macnutt presents as true Canadian architectural treasures.

The richly illustrated book is organized, very consciously, in only three chapters, with one reserved for each of the legislative buildings. We are treated to a very formal tour of each of the three structures: the Legislative Assembly in Halifax, a Georgian classic built between 1811 and 1819; Province House in Charlottetown, a smaller version of the Nova Scotian building erected from 1843 to 1848; and finally, the New Brunswick Legislative Building, a Second Empire style structure, designed by J.C. Dumaresq and dating back to1882. Full and detailed attention is paid to the intricacies of each building, supported by a handy glossary of architectural terms.

For all its charms, the book is a prime example of what Dr. Ian McKay might call “tourism/history” because it seeks to market or promote an essentially mythical image of our parliamentary democracy. The whole story treats these secular institutions with the respect normally accorded our churches. The three legislative buildings are lovingly recreated in photographs that exude a certain purity or perhaps virginity. Looking closer at the glowing visual images, the built heritage begins to resemble a beautiful tableau without any scratches.

Macnutt’s book captures well the Maritime political legacy of Whiggish values. The provincial Houses represent outward symbols of a British parliamentary system that operates on a higher plain, but still conveys hidden blessings. While he celebrates democratic rights, one senses that his world is populated with royal visits, pageantry, and those annual New Year’s Day levees. After the publication of John Boileau’s The Peaceful Revolution (2008), this book fills out the missing pieces in defence of parliamentary formalism. Building for Democracy is near picture perfect, but democracy itself can be, at times, messy. It is hard to imagine parliamentary democracy without flesh and blood stories and flights of oratory. The Nova Scotia House is somehow incomplete without the echoes of Joseph Howe’s oratory. The tale of the wild deer running through the New Brunswick House would have added a little levity. And recent news reports about the serious decay of Charlottetown’s Province House raise legitimate questions about that province’s commitment to costly heritage. preservation.

In Macnutt’s book, there is no hint that this parliamentary tradition might be threatened. After spending $10 million on Democracy 250, young Nova Scotians continue to be rather indifferent. The D250 summary report, Is Anybody Listening?(May 2009), suggests, more darkly, that most still remain oblivious to the charms of parliamentary democracy. One can appreciate Building for Democracy without necessarily accepting its rather glowing, uncritical view of the magnificence of parliamentary democracy in all its symbolic forms. This is one book meant to be held reverentially, to be admired and respected, but never really analyzed or called into question. Perhaps our provincial Houses are, like this book, just meant to be admired – from a distance.

Paul W. Bennett is Director of Schoolhouse Consulting, Halifax, author of The Grammar School (Formac 2009), and online editor of EduBlog at www.schoolhouseconsulting.ca

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