Tuesday, January 10, 2006

One word for Paul Martin

Pathetic.

His proposal to open up the Constitution and overturn the federal government's ability to disagree with the Supreme Court's interpretation of legislation is the most desperate thing I've heard from a candidate for PM in my entire adult life.

He said it would be the first initiative of a Liberal government.

If this were to be enacted, it would mean that unelected, unvetted, unaccountable Supreme Court judges would be able to ride roughshod over the decisions that are made by our Parliamentary representatives through debate, consultation and compromise. This equates to rule by philosopher kings.

I also note that he wouldn't try to get the provinces on side. No surprise here, because that would mean calling Quebec on the carpet regarding their controversial and exclusionary language legislation, and no Liberal would ever dream of doing that.

I wonder what law profs Irwin Cotler and Anne McLellan think of Martin's proposal. My bet is not much. I'm sure Ignatieff thinks it's ridiculous, too.

Pierre Trudeau is rolling over in his grave.

ADDENDUM: The debate was so boring I had to switch it after the first hour. A new drinking game for future press conferences and scrums: Every time Martin begins a phrase with "The fact is", do a shot. You'd end up downing a 26er within ten minutes.

2 Comments:

At 7:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It reminds me of David Peterson's deathbed promise to cut the provincial sales tax to 7%. That, more than anything, caused the bottom to drop out.

 
At 8:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ugh, constitutional policy on the fly? The pre December 2003 Paul Martin never would have stooped this low.

 

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