The Best Laid Plans, a novel originally self-published by its author, has won Canada Reads 2011.

Terry Fallis's comic novel, about a reluctant first-time politician who is unexpectedly elected to parliament, defeated Ami McKay's bestselling novel, The Birth House, about a midwife living in turn-of-the-century Nova Scotia, in the final round of voting on Wednesday. The final tally was 4 to 1.

Earlier in the annual CBC radio program, the late Carol Shields' last novel Unless, about a writer whose daughter voluntarily lives on the streets, was eliminated after a tiebreaker.

"If I'm sounding a bit muffled, it's because I'm curled on the floor of my third-floor library in the fetal position, breathing into a paper bag," Fallis told Canada Reads host Jian Ghomeshi shortly after being declared the winner. "I'm thunderstruck. I cannot believe it. To be on the list with some of those authors was all the thrill I needed. I haven't touched down yet."

The Best Laid Plans tells the story of a former speech writer and political aide named Daniel Addison, who has become sick of the backroom dealings and dishonesty plaguing Ottawa politics. Before he can leave politics completely, Addison is tasked with managing the campaign of a crusty engineering professor named Angus McLintock, who, after a scandal torpedoes his main rival, is elected to the House of Commons. Fallis initially released the book as a podcast, before self-publishing it himself in September 2007. It then won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, beating out heavyweights, including Douglas Coupland and Will Ferguson, and was soon picked up by McClelland & Stewart, who also published his second novel, The High Road, last fall.

CNN broadcaster Ali Velshi, who was the most articulate -- and often the most passionate -- of all this year's panellists, defended the book.

"This is a call to action," said Velshi at the start of Wednesday's broadcast.

"Can you imagine if, between now and the next federal election, people read this book, a few more thousand of them actually go out to vote, and three of them go and find their Angus McLintock?

"This is a book that speaks to the frustration and the disenfranchisement of people all across the world right now. We're seeing it playing out. All people want is fairness in democracy. We're not as badly off as other societies are, but we are certainly in a place where people don't think they're heard by their elected officials. This book speaks to all of those people and says to people, 'You have an opportunity to be heard.' "

From the outset of Wednesday's broadcast, it seemed that The Best Laid Plans would prevail. On Tuesday, after Angie Abdou's novel The Bone Cage was eliminated, its defender, former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque, who's the deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada, vowed to support The Best Laid Plans, as he felt it was the book that would have the biggest impact if read by Canadians, and would and inspire people to vote.

Design expert Debbie Travis, who was defending The Birth House, called The Best Laid Plans "confusing" and said she never felt "connected to the characters," but was unable to convince her fellow panellists. Laraque, actor Lorne Cardinal, who defended Unless, and singer Sara Quin, who defended Jeff Lemire's graphic novel Essex County, all voted against The Birth House.

The impact of winning Canada Reads was immediate. At one point Wednesday afternoon, The Best Laid Plans had climbed to No. 3 on Amazon.ca'slist of bestsellers. Doug Pepper, president and publisher of McClelland & Stewart, said they've already "pushed the button on a very extensive reprint" of 20,000 copies.

Earlier this week, Fallis promised Velshi that if The Best Laid Plans won Canada Reads, he'd make Velshi a character in his next novel.

"I might just write his biography now."