I can understand why the distinction between the two “recommended” categories was eliminated. The recommendations that we were receiving across the country were very uneven. In some provinces the majority of those recommended also came as highly recommended. In some provinces a fairly small minority of lawyers received the “highly recommended” designation. At the same time, we noticed that you were much more likely to be highly recommended if you came from a larger law firm or one of the larger cities across Canada. I'm at a loss to explain why that would be, but I'm not at a loss to make the point that people who come from small communities and small law firms are just as qualified to serve on the bench in this country as are those from larger firms.
So inasmuch as there weren't any objective criteria to say why a person was highly recommended as opposed to just recommended, it was deemed appropriate to eliminate that particular category.