Prime Minister Stephen Harper is positioned to do something U.S. President Barack Obama can only dream of -- remake his nation's Supreme Court more to his liking.

Seven of the Supreme Court of Canada's nine members are now eligible (but not required) to retire, with an eighth eligible to go in 2011.

Harper has already made two well-received appointments to the court, but if he keeps his grip on power for another four years, he could appoint a majority of the court.

None of the judges has announced when he or she is going, but speculation is building in Canadian legal circles.

Closest to the mandatory retirement age of 75 are Quebec Justices Louis LeBel, 70, and Morris Fish, 71, and Ontario's Justice Ian Binnie, 70, the court's ranking senior justice, next to Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

All three judges were appointed by the Liberals.

Harper's first appointment, Justice Marshall Rothstein, 69, must also retire in fewer than six years, but it could be sooner since Supreme Court members rarely wait to the last minute to step down.

All in all, it adds up to an historic opportunity for Harper, or Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff if he wins the next election, to put an enduring stamp on the high court by naming three or four judges over the next few years.

Such a rich prize can scarcely be imagined by any American president, since the judges of the U.S. Supreme Court are appointed for life (although Obama has appointed Sonia Sotomayor, and may get a rare double vacancy this spring if the rumoured exits of Justices John Paul Stevens, 89, and pancreatic cancer survivor Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76, materialize).

Political scientist Peter Russell warns that with opportunity comes danger. "The concern is that with so many appointments, a prime minister might fill them all with ideological soulmates, because a Supreme Court cannot serve its country well if it is ideologically loaded in one direction or another," he says.

Russell points out that the Canadian Bar Association and legal academics have called for decades for the creation of a broad-based nominating commission to create non-partisan short lists of qualified candidates for the Supreme Court.

"Given the current situation, it is a matter of urgent public business to establish strong checks and balances on the untrammeled partisan or ideological choices of any prime minister," Russell argues.

Certainly the Supreme Court of Canada's impending vacancies have raised the stakes for the next federal election. Picking Supreme Court judges is the sole prerogative of the Prime Minister. Harper has repeatedly made clear that he considers the Supreme Court too activist and liberal, and prefers judges with a restrained approach to enforcing the Constitution.

Meanwhile, there is speculation in Ontario and Quebec legal circles that Binnie and LeBel, who have had their noses firmly pressed to the court's grindstone for more than a decade, will be the first to go. Fish could also depart soon. He has been at the court for less than seven years but has an ill spouse who lives in Montreal.

LeBel says he has not decided when he will step down. "I like what I am doing and I am still in good health," he says in the current edition of The Lawyers Weekly. "When you reach a certain age, rumours start floating around. If I were to take such a decision the first person who would be informed would be my wife, and after that my chief justice."

Binnie is also keeping mum. But the ex-top barrister from Toronto who keeps bees as a hobby could expect a warm welcome back on Bay Street, where he could take on special assignments conducting public inquiries and high-level mediations, as have Supreme Court alumni Jack Major, Frank Iacobucci and Peter Cory.

Only two of the high court's judges are not yet able to retire with full pensions. Quebec's Justice Marie Deschamps, and Justice Thomas Cromwell, whom Harper appointed in 2008 to fill the court's Atlantic Canada seat. But Deschamps, 57, who was appointed by the Liberals, commutes regularly to Montreal to be with her family, and could go as early as July 1, 2011, when she will have served nine years.

With LeBel and Fish both facing mandatory retirement soon, that means at least two, if not three, of the seats reserved for Quebec will open up.

Potential candidates for the spots include Quebec Court of Appeal Justices Pierre Dalphond and Nicole Duval Hesler to replace Fish, who comes from the appeal court's Montreal contingent, and Justice France Thibault, to replace LeBel, who comes from the appeal court's Quebec City wing. All three speak English.

Of Ontario's three spots on the bench, the only foreseeable opening is Binnie's seat. Justices Rosalie Abella, 63, and Louise Charron, 58, can both retire immediately with pensions, but the Liberal appointees joined the court less than six years ago.

Likely Ontario contenders for the top court include Ontario Court of Appeal Justices Robert Blair and Robert Sharpe, who both have sterling legal credentials and speak fluent French.

The court's two western members are also eligible to retire, but Chief Justice McLachlin, 66, shows no signs of departing. Nor does Rothstein, who was appointed by Harper just four years ago.

By Cristin Schmitz, The Ottawa CitizenFebruary 20, 2010