Alberta Aims to Fix Courts by Adding Politics, Just a Little Though

Alberta has decided that if you can’t win an argument in court, you might as well redesign the court itself.

Premier Danielle Smith, alongside a coalition of equally enthusiastic premiers, is asking Mark Carney to tweak the Constitution so provinces can help pick federal judges, ideally ones they already like. The pitch is simple: why leave impartial justice to Ottawa when it could be crowd-sourced by politicians with strong feelings?

Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser responded with the legal equivalent of “no thanks,” prompting Alberta to escalate from polite letters to full constitutional ambition, because nothing says “measured response” like reopening the Constitution.

Critics, including Bianca Kratt, warn this could politicize the judiciary. Supporters counter that it would merely formalize the politics everyone is already accusing each other of.

Meanwhile, Alberta’s government insists it just wants a “real voice” in justice—preferably one that agrees with it.

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