OTTAWA -- The Manitoba cabinet minister being considered for an appointment to the bench was once a vocal critic of patronage in judicial appointments.
Vic Toews repeatedly lambasted the Liberal party for appointing judges with strong Liberal ties, including in November 2004 when a former chief of staff to then Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler got a judge's seat.
At that time, Toews called for an overhaul of judicial appointments.
"It's just one more illustration of how who you know gets you to the bench," Toews said at the time.
But he backed away from the idea six months after taking office, calling the system a "relatively well-working mechanism." Just weeks later Toews appointed the co-chairman of the Conservative election campaign in New Brunswick to a federal judgeship, the first of several judges with Tory ties moved onto the bench since 2006.
Toews himself may be the next.
This week the Free Press has learned the MP for Provencher and president of the Treasury Board is being considered for an appointment to the Court of Queen's Bench in Manitoba. There are two vacancies at the moment, believed to be in Brandon and Dauphin.
A federal selection committee has been laying the groundwork for the plum appointment by calling provincial justice officials with questions about Toews.
Judges are appointed by the justice minister based on applications that have been screened by a committee. But University of Guelph political scientist Troy Riddell said the committees essentially only say yea or nay on whether a candidate is qualified to be a judge, and the justice minister makes the decision from there.
"It creates a huge pool for the government to choose from and the current system leaves a lot of room for the government to manoeuvre," Riddell said.
Riddell is engaged in a study of patronage in judicial appointments between 1988 and 2003.
He's found that 30 per cent of the judges appointed in those years by both the Tories or Liberal governments had made donations to the political party in power at the time of their appointment.
Riddell is expanding the study to look at political connections beyond donations.
He said he believes the amount of patronage will increase because there are numerous examples of party players getting judicial appointments -- including former MPs and provincial politicians and cabinet ministers.
Toews' office denied there is any truth to the suggestion he is being considered for a judicial appointment.
His spokesman, Mike Storeshaw, denied any knowledge of the judicial appointment and said Toews has every intention of running again in the next election.
However, sources in the Conservative party told the Free Press they had also heard about Toews' potential judgeship.
Sources suggest Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants Toews to step down because of concerns about issues in his personal life -- he's currently in the midst of a divorce. An appointment to the bench makes sense because of Toews' background as a former Crown prosecutor in Brandon and lawyer for the Manitoba government.
Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen and Tory national president Don Plett are both said to be interested in taking a run for Toews' seat. Toews won Provencher in 2006 with two-thirds of the vote.
Riddell said the federal government will never be able to completely remove patronage and politics from any kind of appointments, but he said if the screening process were more rigorous it could reduce the problem.
Several provinces, including Manitoba, have an independent committee that provides the justice minister with a short list of candidates for appointments to the provincial judiciary. The minister chooses judges from the list.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
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