Writing Canada's Political Constitution

In this article, the authors argue that the codification of Canada's Constitution should not be limited to its legal component. Rather, the authors propose that Canada's unwritten political constitution, comprised of non-legal rules and norms that characterize Canadian democracy, ought to be codified. The authors contend that codifying the political constitution would both give political actors an opportunity to reflect and define the constitution while simultaneously modernising the political rules entrenched in the constitution. In advocating for this position, the authors analyze comparative codifications in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. While traditional arguments for codification have focused neatly on the development of cabinet manuals, the authors propose that codification of the political constitution should go beyond such conventional methods. The authors identify the shortcomings of the traditional cabinet manual and argue that both Parliament and the executive have a key role to play in "writing the unwritten". While being wary of the challenges that present themselves to this task, the authors argue that the need for political actors in constitutional conversations necessitate change in Canada's constitutional landscape.