Alberta's 1937 attempt to force newspapers to publish government rebuttals was blocked by the Lieutenant Governor, a check that Canada has since hard-wired into law. Federal judges serve until 75 and can only be removed by parliament, a vote that has never happened. The U.S. risks losing this protection if the Supreme Court lets the president fire agency heads at will.
Chapters
In 1937, Alberta learned a hard constitutional lesson, and it is one the US government might want to heed. The government at the time was trying to push through a handful of unpopular bills, including one that would force newspapers to print government replies to criticism. It was called— ready for it— the Accurate News and Information Act. There was also a bill to control banks, even though banking is federal, and a rule that no bank could operate without a provincial license which isn't required because again banking is federal. Ottawa said the bills were unconstitutional. Alberta, on brand even back then, tried to pass them anyway. Now in Canada, bills that are passed by the government need royal assent from the monarch. In almost all circumstances, that is just a ceremonial rubber stamp that the monarch's representative gives. The Lieutenant Governor at the time, a man named John Bowen, looked at the legislation and refused to give royal assent. Alberta's cabinet was furious, the premier spitting with anger, but they couldn't touch him. He left when his term expired. The US Supreme Court appears ready to hand its president the power to fire the leadership of practically any government body he wants. One bad mood day and poof, there goes the head of the EPA. Canada doesn't do that. In fact, our whole system was built to prevent that. We have spent a century hardwiring our institutions so that not even the crankiest prime minister can wake up and decide to clean house because he didn't like what Rosemary Barton said about him. Take judges. If you are a federally appointed judge in Canada, you hold office until you turn 75. You can't be removed by cabinet, you cannot be fired by the Prime Minister, you can't even be fired by Parliament unless both the House of Commons and the Senate vote together to recommend your removal, which has happened exactly zero times. Not even in cases when a judge was clearly in trouble, like the one judge that found nude photos of hers were online. She resigned before Parliament could act. That is how high the bar is. Senators are appointed here, not elected, and even then the Prime Minister can't fire them. The only way they leave is if they're convicted of a serious offense. Then there are the watchdogs, and boy do We have a lot of them. Every one of them serves a fixed term which can only be revoked for cause and if the entire Parliament votes to do it, often requiring both chambers. Cabinet alone cannot do it. The Prime Minister can't do it. Mario Dion investigated conflicts of interest involving Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers and nobody could fire him. So while other countries experiment with giving political leaders the power to purge entire institutions on a whim, we'll stick with something boring and stable. Here, independence is not a slogan. It is the wiring within the walls.
