Stephen Harper’s disputed late-term appointments all about politics

The appointments had been published in the Canada Gazette before the election campaign began. If the appointments were as flagrant an abuse as the Liberals claimed, they ought to have raised the issue during the election campaign.

The new government’s commitment to an 'open, merit-based appointments system' is laudable, but the government’s action inappropriately shames the appointees, many of whom clearly merited the positions to which they had been appointed. Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc’s, pictured, letter was not consistent with the 'sunny ways' Justin Trudeau has been preaching.The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY NELSON WISEMAN

February 22, 2016

TORONTO—Relatively few Canadians know what an order-in-council is. Few may realize that an O-in-C, proclaimed by the Cabinet, has the same force in law as an enactment by Parliament. Many will be surprised to learn that Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories became p...

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