Article content

It’s probably worth noting right off the top that I’ve never considered it a big deal that Canada has a constitution.

Maybe that’s because I grew up in Canada before it had one — a peaceful, prosperous country of good-natured strivers, big on tolerance and open to diversity. The constitution didn’t invent that, or make it better. It merely reduced to words the beliefs, principles, ambitions and outlook Canadians had already developed. In doing so, it arguably took the nurturing, protection, expansion and oversight of those principles away from the people among whom they’d developed, and shifted it to lawyers and judges keen on interpreting wording and nuance in accordance with their own concepts of what was intended.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Kelly McParland: Ford says legislatures must prevail, and the public will agree Back to video

Lots of countries have constitutions. Article One of the Constitution of the Russian Federation identifies Russia as “a democratic federal law-bound State.” Article Two notes that “man, his rights and freedoms are the supreme value,” the recognition, observance and protection of which “shall be the obligation of the State.” Which, at the moment, means whatever Vladimir Putin says it means. Venezuela, currently in full meltdown from a combination of lawlessness, corruption and crime, also has a constitution, its 26th.