Jack Layton Quotes

My great hope would be that Quebec would realize itself fully as a distinct part of Canada, and stay Canadian, bringing to Canada a part of its richness.

We want an independent Quebec within a strong and united Canada.

I get nervous every time we start tinkering with the Constitution.

This [nullification] is a normal and traditional American method of circumventing the inflexibility of the Constitution. When the Constitution has come into conflict with the living needs of the nation, and when amendment was impossible, the method of changing the Constitution has been to change it and then get the very human Supreme Court to sanction it.

I yield ... to the conviction that our Constitution cannot last. The Union has been prolonged thus far by miracles ... they cannot continue.

It they do not succeed with the Constitution, then they must succeed without it.

I don't believe in altering the Constitution.

The Constitution is a document that should only be amended with great caution.

As a matter of traditional and sound constitutional doctrine, an amendment to the Constitution should be the last resort when all other measures have proved inadequate.

None of us takes amending the Constitution lightly. The plain fact is this amendment has been exhaustively studied and it really is time to act.

The repeal of racist language in the Constitution of Alabama was and still is a necessary step in the state's ability to progress.

I hope that one day the people of Quebec will one day be a part of the concert of nations. This is an internal debate. This will happen when Quebecers are ready.

Because the Second Amendment is an incomprehensible mess, because too many lobbyists have argued that it is an absolute protection of actions and items never considered at the time of our nation's founding, and because there is a clear state interest in protecting the lives of its citizens, the words must be removed from the Constitution.

One of the things I learned in law school is that there's nothing wrong or undesirable or dishonorable or destructive about amending the Constitution.

Recognizing Quebec as being different, recognizing our history, recognizing our identity, has never meant a weakening of Quebec and has never been a threat to national unity.

Our state has a balanced budget. We have to live within our means in the state of Wyoming. I was in the state senate. This country needs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Remember the referendum on the Charlottetown constitutional accord? The more Canada's political and business elites threatened Canadians that the country would disappear into a black hole if the accord weren't passed, the more Canadians opposed it.

Our state has a balanced budget. We have to live within our means in the state of Wyoming. I was in the state senate. This country needs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We need to live within our means.

I know Quebecers don't want to relive old battles; they prefer to build for the future.

The Iraqis have once again failed to meet a deadline for a final draft of the constitution.

I used to have a great fear of constitutional conventions. I have a great fear now of not having one.

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both.

A permanent constitution must be the work of quiet, leisure, much inquiry, and great deliberation.

There is no probability that a vote of two thirds can be commanded for any amendment of the Constitution touching slavery …

The path to an amendment to the Constitution is a thorny one.