Parkinson: Renovating Parliament – cautionary lessons from Australia

Some years ago, I wrote a book about the physical, spatial needs of democracy, comparing parliamentary and city layouts in 11 cities around the world. I praised the Canadian Parliament on a number of grounds, primarily because of its openness: Protests are allowed on the lawn, members regularly meet constituents inside the buildings, and Canada Day celebrations occur all around the precinct.
It was, to some extent at least, the people’s building, because they performed