PARLIAMENT VS. PEOPLE: AN ESSAY ON DEMOCRACY AND CANADIAN POLITICAL CULTURE. Resnick, Philip. Vancouver, New Star Books, c1984. 120pp, paper. ISBN 0-919573-30-4 (cloth) $14.95. 0-919573-31-2 (paper) $6.95, CIP Grades 9 and up Reviewed by Donald M. Santor Volume 13 Number 3 1985 May Parliament vs. People is a brief but critical analysis of Canada's political and economic system. Philip Resnick, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, attacks a system that leaves political power in the hands of Parliament and economic power in the hands of a few multinational corporations. Liberal parliamentary democracy he argues, is "content to reduce the role of the citizen to voting for competing candidates;" who are then left alone to do as they please until the next election. Resnick's goal in writing this book, (or essay as he calls it), is to stimulate a discussion that will lead to greater popular control of the political and economic life of Canada. Since the traditional political-economic system has not adequately served the needs or interest of Canadians, Resnick offers some radical suggestions, not as a blueprint for the future but as a beginning point for discussion. Proposals for restructuring include base-level democracy, as an alternative to Parliament, and market socialism, as an alternative to both the corporate and state-dominated capitalism. From these changes would emerge a new "social contract" and a "popular sovereignty." Parliament vs. People is stimulating and provocative. With a style that is easy to read, Resnick questions the ideological mythology that surrounds the teaching of Canadian politics. Donald M. Santor, London Board of Education, London, Ont.