"When the call came, I was so shocked that you could have knocked me over with a feather," Chief Justice Winkler said in an interview. "It is a daunting prospect."
Chief Justice Winkler said that while issues such as access to justice and the right to proper legal representation are among those he plans to champion, "I have hardly thought about my priorities yet. I've been a little bit shell-shocked."
A noted labour law specialist and mediator, the judge is known equally well as a witty, affable raconteur. An avid hunter and fisherman with a passionate love of dogs, he owns two black Labs - Gretzky and Maggie - and is notorious for working canine references into his speeches.
As a substantial portion of the legal community had feared, Mr. Harper passed over Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor, associate chief justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal.
"Of all the names that were bandied about by the cognoscenti, Warren Winkler was not among them," observed a veteran Toronto lawyer, who requested anonymity. "There will be a certain feeling on the Court of Appeal bench that the chief should have come from among them - but, then, Chief Justice McMurtry didn't come from the court either."
Chief Justice Winkler said yesterday that there are two sides to the argument. "Some say that experience in the trial courts is important for an appeal court judge," he said. "Others would say that the person should come from the appeal court itself. I think it is a balance. You come with the experience you have."
In a legal oddity, his appointment means that the country has two chief justices from the same Alberta town of 3,000 - Pincher Creek. The other is Chief Justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin.
"This is a spectacular appointment," said a judge who has served alongside Chief Justice Winkler. "Wink has written a lot of important law; he is a superb administrator; and he is a very generous and caring person. Like Chief Justice McMurtry, he is a consensus builder."
In recent years, Chief Justice Winkler has applied his legendary mediation skills to disputes ranging from labour cuts at an insolvent Air Canada, to the 2001 settlement for victims of tainted Red Cross blood supplies.
Frank Addario, a spokesman for the Criminal Lawyers' Association, said it is critical that Chief Justice Winkler bring his skills of persuasion to his new role. "In the labour law world, the trade unions give regular people access to justice through the arbitration process," Mr. Addario said.
"The legal aid system was supposed to do the same in family and criminal courts, but it is failing because of government neglect and disinterest. I hope that Chief Justice Winkler picks up where Chief Justice McMurtry left off in calling for a better legal aid program."
A flurry of other federal judicial appointments yesterday included Lois Hoegg, a Newfoundland lawyer who is a daughter-in-law of John Crosbie, a Conservative Party stalwart who served for several years as federal justice minister.
Ms. Hoegg was appointed to the trial division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.
