The Rule of the Courts

M. Akram Faizer

Seventh, HLR recommends that when the constrained override power is invoked, courts can review both the underlying claim and the validity of the override, such that on the merits, the Court can still declare the statute unconstitutional and explain its disagreement with the legislature without providing a remedy. 254

6. Conclusion

Having spent my childhood and early adulthood in Canada and the bulk of my life in the U.S., I can honestly affirm the old dictum that while Canadians have malevolent knowledge about the U.S., Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada. Pierre Trudeau, no less, once said about Americans that “[L]iving next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” 255 Indeed, bordering the United States does pose significant challenges for Canadian self-government. The most obvious is that Canadian governments find it exceedingly difficult to protect Canadian identity while seeking the free movement of goods, services and people between both countries. Another is that the U.S.’s low tax burden and weak safety net makes it very difficult for Canadians to implement a tax structure akin to the countries of western Europe without suffering a “brain drain” to the U.S. That said, Canada’s geopolitical weakness as compared to the U.S. has, until now, given it significant advantages. It has enabled Canadians to benefit from free trade with what is by far the world’s largest economy and freed Canadian govern ments from spending large amounts on national defense and intelligence gathering. It has also allowed Canadians to implement some of the best features of the U.S. into its institutions and forced Canadians to be open to the global economy. The obvious example for purposes of this is Canada’s 254 Id. 255 CBC Radio, Sleeping with a Very Cranky Elephant: The History of Canada–U.S. Tensions (The Sunday Edition broadcast June 17, 2018), https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ sunday/the-sunday-edition-june-17-2018-1.4692469/sleeping-with-a-very-cranky- elephant-the-history-of-canada-u-s-tensions-1.4699017

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