McLachlin has been a thoughtful judge and an excellent Chief Justice ... as this 2009 academic review of the Court indicates:

"The voting record of McLachlin C.J.C. raises interesting questions about her role on the Court, both in terms of the voting by other members and any norm of cooperation. 

"In terms of voting, she is quite clearly in the middle of the distribution….  she is essentially at the median for all Charter appeals, for criminal Charter appeals and for equality appeals. She is also only slightly above the average liberal voting percentage for all Charter appeals and slightly below for criminal Charter appeals and equality appeals. 

"In terms of cooperation, she has very high (and well above average) rates of signing onto majority or unanimous decisions in all three categories and below-average rates of concurrences and dissents."

She has set a high standard.