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That wasn’t such good news for conservatives. There hasn’t been much good news for conservatives at the Supreme Court in a long time.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Unlike in the United States, “constitutional originalists” are a rare breed in Canada’s legal community. The “living tree” view of the Charter, as a document to be interpreted and reinterpreted as times change, is dominant. “Harper did not have much of an opportunity to appoint conservatives in the vein of Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court because they don’t really exist in Canada’s legal community,” said University of Waterloo political scientist Emmett Macfarlane, an expert on the Supreme Court.

In fact, with the exception of Marc Nadon — whom the court ruled ineligible to represent Quebec — Harper barely even rocked the boat. He could hardly pass wind without his opponents shrieking in horror, but there were always plenty of mainstream voices willing to praise his choices for the high court. In Wagner, Trudeau has appointed a Chief Justice who might serve for 15 years. Many Canadians would surely have been happier with the more obviously progressive Rosalie Abella; but everyone seems perfectly content with Wagner — even those who wouldn’t pour a drink on Harper if he were on fire.

In short, after nearly a decade of work, it’s not clear Harper made much of a difference at all.

Ted Morton, the University of Calgary political scientist and former Alberta Tory cabinet minister, concedes there isn’t a deep pool of conservative judges in Canada from which to pick. Nevertheless he argues Harper “underperformed” on his appointments “from a conservative perspective.” He thinks Harper and his justice ministers failed to realize the extent to which the court might stand athwart their governments’ parliamentary agendas.