acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton) (04/25/85)
In article <1032@ubc-cs.UUCP> manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vince Manis) writes: > >The point has been made that the Charter is a radical departure in Canadian >jurisprudence. This claim is both true and false, in that we have always had >Constitutional law, going back to the days of the Divine Right of Kings, >which overrode Parliamentary law. (Richard Nixon was the most recent ruler >to invoke the DRoK, which he called ``Executive Privilege''). Lots of people, including myself, would suggest that one Pierre Elliot Trudeau was actually the most recent ruler to invoke the DRoK. He certainly gave the impression, especially during the latter years of his reign, that his ideas and goals for the country were the only correct ones. As I recall about 3-4 years ago he was absolutely obsessed with repatriating the constitution, meanwhile the economy was crashing down around him and us, but nothing could stop his drive to bring home the constitution. What do we have to show for it? An economy that is still basically in ruins and a piece of paper that, according to the Vancouver Sun, caused Justice Minister John Crosbie to remark "that the only sure thing about Section 15 is that it means a lot of lucrative work for a lot of lawyers." The columnist then went on to say, "He was verbally flayed for that statement, likened to a neanderthal who swings to work on vines rather than drives a Saab Turbo like any decent and moral Ottawa kingpin." In many ways the same thing is happening with the PCs today. They were elected to rid parliament of the corrupt Liberals and to work magic on the economy. To date they have performed a smoke and mirrors show with the economy and done nothing, except of course in Brian Mulroney's riding where the spending has proceeded at a rapid pace. With respect to political patronage, the PCs seem to be doing a pretty good job of sticking their noses into the public trough even though it was pretty clear that most Canadians thought that this sort of thing had to stop. It appears that once again we have a government that promises one thing and does the exact opposite just like the Liberals with wage and price controls and their vow not to put an 18 cent a gallon tax on gasoline. Donald Acton