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EDMONTON — Now that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced he will use the notwithstanding clause to override a court decision so his government can downsize Toronto city council, the question for many political observers becomes: who’s going to use it next?

The notwithstanding clause, a “classic Canadian compromise,” in the words of Alberta political scientist Ted Morton, was baked into the Canadian constitution to balance — and get the best of — an American-style setup of judicial superiority and a British-style system of parliamentary supremacy.

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“It was one of the compromises, or changes, that (Pierre) Trudeau made at the end of the negotiations to get the Western premiers, Western provinces on-side,” said Morton. “The Western premiers didn’t trust Trudeau, and also, they didn’t trust the Supreme Court of Canada in those days.”

If the clause had its genesis in Western alienation, since its creation in 1982 it has mostly been used in Quebec, most famously to subjugate English-language rights to French-language rights — an application that has contributed to the belief elsewhere in Canada that its use represents something of a political third rail. It remains to be seen whether that will continue to be the case.