when trudeau won in 2015, one of the things everybody was hoping for was that the liberals would shift the court further to the left. the existing chief justice, beverly mclachlan, had of course been appointed by the last progressive conservative prime minister, and had evolved into an unexpectedly left-libertarian chief justice. i'm a big fan, actually. but, we kind of fluked out - she was appointed by the right.
shortly after he won, she had to retire. she was 75. it's the law. so, the liberals had their chance. great, right?
now, if you think merrick garland was bad, get a load of this...
you'd have to ask him what he was thinking, but, in some kind of fit of post-partisanship or something, he actually asked a former member of the social credit party (kim campbell) to pick the next chief justice. this wasn't a red tory, or a moderate conservative - this was a woman from the furthest right reaches of the conservative spectrum. see, but she was a woman. and, in trudeau's silly post-ideological fantasy world, her gender was more important than her politics.
and, she predictably picked the most conservative judge in the list.
so, now we do have a right-wing court - because trudeau asked the conservatives to pick the justice for him. and, this might be the first ruling that makes him look decidedly stupid, for doing it.