John Ralston Saul is optimistic that democracy and citizenry are being preserved in community and town-hall meetings throughout Canada. In Joseph Howe and the Battle for Freedom of Speech (Gaspereau), Saul juxtaposes Howe’s vision of a free press as part of inclusive political debate against Canada’s shift away from fact-oriented journalism toward opinion columns and superficial, repetitive pulse news. This book is too short to tell you anything new, but it does raise important questions for anyone interested in the relationship between journalism and public debate, and its plush pages and elegant design make it a pleasure to thumb through.