The U.S. Supreme Court has okay'd New York's system to select trial judges in New York in Board of Elections v. Torres.  In New York, primary voters elect convention delegates who choose candidates for the judgeships. Once they are nominated, those candidates run on the general election ballot. In practice, they frequently have no opposition. 

Critics have been complaining that the conventions are patronage-driven affairs in which allies of party leaders are rewarded with judgeships and all others are shut out. Justice Scalia reversed two federal courts saying that the system's opponents ''complain not of the state law, but of the voters' (and their elected delegates') preference for the choices of the party leadership."

In Canada, we're used to elected officials choosing our judges.

What do you think is better?