🇨🇦 The Liberals Want to Strip Provinces of the Notwithstanding Clause — Then Backed Down, For Now

At the Liberal national convention in Montreal, grassroots party members debated a resolution that would have allowed Ottawa to invoke federal disallowance against any province that uses the notwithstanding clause before court challenges are exhausted. In plain language: the federal government would override provincial legislation before any court even rules it unconstitutional. Justice Minister Sean Fraser shut down the idea, and the resolution was ultimately defeated — partly because Quebec MPs including Joël Lightbound and Patricia Lattanzio spoke against it.

The resolution failed. But the fact that it was debated at a governing party's convention, in a country where provincial sovereignty is constitutionally entrenched, tells you everything about where the Liberal base wants to take this country. The notwithstanding clause exists precisely to give elected legislatures a democratic check against judicial overreach. The Liberals want to make it unusable. Carney calls this unity. Provinces that use legal tools to govern themselves would be punished by Ottawa before a single judge weighs in. That is not federalism. That is centralized control wearing a maple leaf.

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