Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank my colleague, the member for Niagara Falls and former attorney general and minister of justice for his service.
The motion before us today suggests that Justice Thomas Cromwell is “Atlantic Canada’s representative on the Supreme Court”. This strikes me as a very narrow and limited understanding of the role that justices play on the highest court, that somehow Justice Cromwell is not a Canadian first and foremost.
Is it the member's view that this convention must be automatically and immediately applied in every circumstance? I would remind my friend that at the end of 1978, Justice Spence of Ontario retired, and instead of appointing an Ontario judge, the then-prime minister tapped William McIntyre of British Columbia to be on the court. Then four years later, in 1982, an Alberta justice stepped down from the court, and the then-prime minister replaced him with an Ontario judge.
Is it the member's view that this convention is automatic and immediate each time? Were those appointments illegitimate?