A Digital Trojan Horse

I like the quixotic former Conservative member of Parliament Garth Turner, his quirky adherence to principle and his exuberant maverickism. I used to check out his blog fairly regularly, and I looked forward to reading his exposé of the Conservative caucus—the “sheeple” of the title of his new book. But I will admit that I expected more of Sheeple: Caucus Confidential in Stephen Harper’s Ottawa than it delivered.

Turner does not entirely disappoint. Digital democracy versus the iron heel is a great theme: the mildly eccentric man of principle, a journalist with a taste for blogging, versus the tightly wound, intensely ideological and media-hating Stephen Harper.

The book is not well constructed, however: there is far too much cutting forward and backward in time, in a contrived and at times confusing attempt to build suspense and maintain narrative tension. But the story line is actually rather simple. Turner, elected in 2006 with lukewarm...