Major vacancy

While one prominent position is filled today, another opens up earlier than expected with John Major's retirement from the Supreme Court.

Ahab's Whale has already pointed out the paucity of coverage from CBC's article, not to mention the lack of mention of the fact that the new justice will come from the West.

To fill in the most obvious blank from today's coverage, a brief summary of the top candidates is available here:

Described as hardworking, no-nonsense, tough-minded, outgoing and ``extremely bright,'' (Georgina) Jackson, 52, was not politically active before she was appointed directly to Saskatchewan's Appeal Court in 1991. She is popular with her fellow judges, and spent many years at Saskatchewan's Department of Justice where she oversaw the development of civil laws...

(Freda) Steel, a member of the bars of both Ontario and Manitoba, also had no political affiliation before her appointment to the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench in 1995. After graduating near the top of her class at the University of Manitoba, she earned her master of laws at Harvard and went on to teach law until her appointment to the bench. Steel, 52, has extensive experience as a labour arbitrator and provincial human rights adjudicator...

(Robert) Richards, also 52, also holds a master of laws from Harvard and is called to the bars of both Saskatchewan and Ontario. After graduating with distinction from the University of Saskatchewan's law school, he clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada. He then became chief of staff for former federal Conservative cabinet minister Ramon Hnatyshyn for a year during the mid-'80s. Richards went on to join the Saskatchewan Department of Justice as director of constitutional law, arguing more than 45 cases in the Supreme Court before his appointment to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal last year.

Note from these summaries the lack of partisanship in past appointments (not to mention in the proposed candidates): two of the candidates had no political affiliation, while Justice Richards was appointed to the Court of Appeal by a Liberal federal government in consultation with the NDP provincial government.

Whoever gets appointed now, our Supreme Court should get a highly qualified judge regardless of political affiliation...and without millions of dollars and hundreds (thousands?) of hours being spent in a pointless confirmation battle. Now why is it that people are proposing to model our confirmation system after the U.S. rather than the other way around?