These are certainly interesting times for constitutional norms. Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s governments are planning to pass bills they say would essentially allow them to ignore any federal law they don’t like. They can’t do that, constitutional experts protest. Premiers Danielle Smith and Scott Moe don’t seem to care.
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government continues to explore novel uses of the charter’s notwithstanding clause, this time to legislate (or at least threaten to) a four-year contract on CUPE-represented educational workers. That’s not the sort of thing the notwithstanding clause was meant for, constitutional experts insist. And it was never designed to be used preemptively — to shield new legislation from judicial objections, rather than respond to such objections after the fact. Premier Doug Ford doesn’t seem to care.
Meanwhile in Quebec, provincial Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette says the Coalition Avenir Québec government
will introduce legislation that would make swearing allegiance to the Canadian monarch optional. Constitutional experts insist (as does common sense) that a province can’t just pass a law that overrides the Constitution, which makes the oath mandatory in no uncertain terms. Premier François Legault definitely doesn’t care.
Still in Quebec: On Wednesday, Christine Fréchette, minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration, gave an interesting answer to a perplexing question. The federal government wants to ramp up immigration to 500,000 people a year. Legault refuses to accept more than 50,000; he wants even more powers over immigration to be transferred from Ottawa, a process that began in 1991 for Quebec and no other province.
If a province currently comprising 22 per cent of the Canadian population only accepts 10 per cent of immigrants to Canada, a reporter noted, it is rapidly going to lose demographic clout in the federation — including in the House of Commons, one might naively assume.
“We’re relying on a commitment from the Canadian prime minister to ensure stable representation of Quebec in the House of Commons,”
Fréchette said. “The (federal) opposition parties share this perspective. For us, it’s reassuring.”
No federal party should want to be seen aiding and abetting Legault's economically damaging plan
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Worse, and just as pathetic, Fréchette has good reason to believe Ottawa will play ball. The Liberals
have committed to not letting Quebec lose even a single seat, despite the mathematical fact that it should in the next redistribution. “Ensuring that Quebec’s number of seats in the House of Commons remains constant” is even part of the Liberals’
supply-and-confidence agreement with the New Democrats.
Well, hey, why not? Representation-by-population in Canada is already a bit of a joke: A vote in Labrador (population 26,655) is worth almost eight times what it’s worth in Edmonton-Wetaskiwin (population 209,431). The largest riding in Ontario, Brampton West, is home to 162,353 people, according to the 2021 census; the smallest, Kenora, is home to 64,261.
Besides, we all know Quebec is special. The rest at the above link.