[-YYZ-]

Well, let's see. Conservative politicians can appoint judges more to their liking, if they can get into power and stay there for a while. Provinces can use the not-withstanding clause to opt out of sections of the constitution if they've got the political guts to do it. And remind me exactly what the ammending formula for the constitution is: I seem to recall that no single small province can veto changes, although one large one could, but I may be mis-remembering.

I'm not optimistic about the chances for positive change in this country, but I'm not willing to throw in my hand just yet - my country deserves better than that. Your defeatist attitude certainly won't accomplish anything.

[GMMAC]

In a nutshell, Sec 38 states that 7/10 provinces representing 50+% of the population is the factor required to amend. So, as an example, the 4 Maritime provinces with a population a mere fraction of Toronto's (and PEI having one actually less than Burlington's!) can have the rest of the country over a Constitutional barrel.

What you call "defeatist", I call realistic.
To me, your statement "... appoint judges more to their liking ..." reveals a failure to fully grasp the issues confronting us: An unelected and unaccountable Judiciary and The Charter's perpetuation of same is a large part of the problem. As example, Rosie Abella - even in matriarchal socialist Canada - never would have made it through a U.S. style confirmation Hearing but now she's a de facto dictator for life. Plus, not to be partisan, some of the most outrageous left-wing hacks and gender and religious bigots currently sitting on Ontario's Benches were put there by the sell-out Harris regime.