Brian Mulroney Quotes
Constitutional reform is exasperatingly slow.
Brian Mulroney, Canadian Prime Minister (Conservative), "Quebec Separatists Want It Both Ways," New York Times, October 10, 1995
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This president served his terms as allowed by the Constitution but then moved to change the constitution so that he could be the dictator as perpetual president. The purpose of constitutions is to limit and control the day to day political process and processes of reform. This stands the purpose of a constitution on its head. Modern totalitarian states almost all have constitutions. However where they differ from democracies is that the dictatorships ignore their constitutions, constantly suspend them in “emergencies” or change them at will to serve the interests of the ruling authorities. See {622125} for a Supreme Court Justice’s view of this kind of situation.
After FDR died in his 4th term, Republicans started a movement to limit the Presidential service to eight years. There was little public interest in the issue, but the Republicans who had just obtained control of Congress considered it a priority for them. Despite the lack of public interest, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the amendment, which was later ratified by the States.
The conservative Senator was very distrustful of the constitutional amendment process itself after a both prohibition and women's suffrage amendments had passed. Wadsworth and his supporters feared Constitutional amendments passed by Congress and the State legislatures without any direct approval of the people.
The Prime Minister and his Tory Party was calling for Senate Reform
The dramatic thing about this quotation is that in public, the mantra of conservatives about the courts of America is that they make and change laws as opposed to just interpreting and clarifying the laws. They traditionally accuse judges who rule against their favorite positions as using the courts as an instrument of political and social change. Here a leading conservative federal jurist, who thereafter became a member of the Supreme Court, was acknowledging and advocating the courts as instruments for conservative social, economic, and political change.
Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993.
