The Best Laid Plans

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Recommended: Political culture in canada

After a rough start, The Best Laid Plans proved to be a spectacular novel. Once I triumphed the rather slow and monotonous beginning, Fallis' novel transformed into a true page-turner. Fallis has achieved the unthinkable; his book centered on Canadian politics could fit in quite nicely in the pop culture, comedy and drama sections of any North American library. The range of audiences The Best Laid Plans has the potential to appease is astounding. As for the content, Fallis provides a fair amount of insight into the world of Canadian politics and while some of his examples may be slightly ostentatious, many of the key events in the novel should prompt the reader to make connections to various recent events in Canadian political history. For example, it could be said that it would have been wise of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to follow Eric Cameron's post scandal footsteps and have fled the country as soon as news of his crack smoking video broke.
Reading The Best Laid Plans further ignited my desire to live and work in the political world. Fallis illustrated the Canadian political world as being quite similar to how I have always imagined it. The impression The Best Laid Plans gave me of the Canadian political world was that of a highly competitive, intellectual arena full of debate, that lacks the degree of hostility found in the political world of many other countries, and can actually be quite entertaining. I thoroughly enjoy watching the game of politicians narrowly abiding by the rules, for example, opposition members expressing they believe the Government is lying without breaking the rule regarding calling each other liars. Life in the Canadian political world seems to be a constant battle to outwit the opponent, and Fallis' ch...

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...k out for number one' and 'take whatever you can get.'" (281) A common theme in The Best Laid Plans appears to be that the Canadian political system is more of a game than anything, including a democracy.
The Best Laid Plans concludes on a high note, featuring a nail-biting ending. The humour of the story is carried into the finale as Fallis illustrates Members of Parliament trekking across Ottawa on cross-country skis and being towed to Parliament Hill in a sleigh attached to a snowmobile for a last minute vote. Fallis was successful in showing, with the help of creative exaggeration, how exciting the Canadian political world can be. In my opinion, The Best Laid Plans should be mandatory reading material in all high schools due to it's ability to educate readers on the Canadian political system and to spark interest in Canadian politics. Hats off to Terry Fallis!

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