So who is going to be the next Supreme Court Justice...Canada-style?

Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist passed away this weekend. This has led to a barrage of speculation, ponderation, punditry, questions, conspiracies, and just plain talking about who the next U.S.S.C. justice will be. Here in Canada, we also have a vacant Supreme Court seat that needs filling. Who's going to fill it? Tumbleweed? Crickets? Nobody in Canada seems to care. Sure, Vic Toews complains about process. And Irwin Cotler proposes a Canadian Idol type process to canvass potential nominees from "outside the box". But nobody is actually talking about names. Maybe this is my Toronto-centrism. Maybe the halls of power out west (the likely home of Canada's next Supreme Court justice) are aflutter with rumours. Well I want to hear them. Who is good, who is not? Who are the members of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan (maybe Alberta?) Courts of Appeal that are most likely to be considered? Who's in with the Liberals? Is there a western academic that might make a push? A practitioner? A Queen's Bench judge? There's been talk of a First Nations appointment - who should we be keeping our eye on in this regard?

Everyone's always wringing their hands with concern about "judicial activism" and how the process we should adopt for appointing judges. Fine. Maybe the lack of democratic process is one of the reasons there's so little scuttlebutt. But Supreme Court justices are also people. So let's also talk about the people who may be the next one.

Both idle and informed speculation would be welcomed.