g gang of boarding-house floaters and saloon
heelers can be transferred from a secure ward to a doubtful ward and so
submerge the political rights of permanent residents.

Judges can not vote in Canada. In fact, they can take no part, direct or
indirect, by influence or speech, in politics. This was one of the
things fought out in the '37 Rebellion and forever settled. Canada could
not conceive of a man who had been a judge being nominated for the
premiership or as Governor. Of course, when Liberals are in power, as
advisers of the Governor-General, they recommend more Liberals for
judgeships than Conservatives; and when Conservatives are in power, they
recommend for judgeships more Conservatives than Liberals. I think of
attorneys who were penniless strugglers in the Liberal ranks of my
childhood days in Winnipeg who are to-day dignified judges; and I think
of other attorneys, who were penniless strugglers in Conservative ranks
who have been advanced under the Borden regime to judgeships; but the
point is, having been so advanced, they pass a chasm which they can never
retrace without impeachment--the chasm is party politics. They are
independent of popular favor. They can be impeached and displaced. They
are forever disgraced by defalcation in office. By observing the duties
of office, they are secure for life and held in an esteem second only to
that of the Governor-General.

You will notice that it is all more a matter of public sentiment than a
law; of custom than of court. That is what I mean when I say that
Canada's constitution is a vital, living, growing thing, not a dead
formula by which the Past binds and impedes the Present and the Future.

There must be a session of the Dominion Parliament once every year. Five
years is the limit of any tenure of office by the Commons. Every five
years the Commoners must go to the country for reelection. Usually the
government in power goes to the country for reendorsement before the term
of Parliament expires.

Laws on corrupt practices are very strict and what is more--they are
generally enforced. The slightest profit, direct or indirect of a
member, vacates his seat. Corruption on the part of underlings, of which
they have known nothing, vacates an election. A member of Parliament can
not participate directly or indirectly in any public work benefiting his
district. He is not in it for what he can get out of it. He is in it
for what he can give to it