The Rule of the Courts

Adopting a Canadian Style Legislative Override to Reconcile American Judicial Review...

were easily subordinated and explained away, especially if one was inclined as I was to focus on the country’s strengths. Canada, by contrast, seemed a relative backwater. Its economy, though robust by international standards, never experienced the 1990s boom of its southern neighbor. Its currency, the Canadian dollar, known to Canadians and international currency traders as the Loonie because the Canadian dollar coin’s reverse side features a common loon, was collapsing in value as compared to the mighty U.S. greenback and many of the highest skilled Canadians were relocating to the U.S., to benefit from its higher professional salaries and significantly lower tax rates. While the United Nations Human Development Index still ranked Canada ahead of the U.S. in terms of mean life expectancy and education levels, and while Canadian crime and incar ceration rates were dramatically lower than those of its southern neighbor, Canadian incomes, especially for those in the top twenty percent of the income distribution were falling behind. With respect to Canadian democracy and the rule of law, Canada seemed on the verge of a breakup. In 1990 the Canadian Government under then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney failed to secure ratification of a 1987 negotiated Canadian constitution, known as the Meech Lake Accords, that was agreed to by all ten provincial premiers and would have recognized the French speaking Province of Quebec as a distinct society within Canadian federalism. 1 The failure of Meech Lake led to a collapse in support for Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative Party and increased support for regional parties such as the western populist and anti-Quebec Reform Party and the pro-Quebec independence Bloc Quebecois. The Canadian elections of 1993 saw the Progressive Conservative Party’s support collapse from 156 seats in Canada’s then-295 seat House of Commons, to a fringe party with a mere 2 seats. 2 While Canada’s historical governing party, the Liberal Party, formed a lopsided majority with 177 seats, threats to Canadian federalism were apparent when the Bloc Quebecois

1 Meech Lake Accord, June 3, 1987, reprinted in Constitutional Accord: Canadian Federalism and the Meech Lake Proposals 23 (Peter W. Hogg ed., 1988). 2 Elections Canada, Voter Information Service, Elections Canada (visited Dec. 30, 2025), https://www.elections.ca

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