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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
What Mr. King said and did about parliamentary government constitutes his most important and distinctive contribution to the development of our constitution, and to Canadian political ideas. This is partly because parliamentary government is the very essence of our constitution; partly because Mr. King had an enormous amount to say about it, and an unrivalled opportunity to put his ideas into practice; and partly because this is the one field in which his ideas were completely original.
This is notably true of his theory of the Crown. Two facts about it are unmistakable. First, he did not believe in the “rubber stamp” theory. In the 1926 crisis, he said three times, once in the House of Commons and twice in his opening campaign speech, that there would be circumstances in which the Crown would be justified in refusing dissolution. He also said, before the vote on the Robb motion, that if Mr. Meighen's Government were defeated, and did not resign, the Governor-General should dismiss it, and he himself would take responsibility for the dismissal. This is about as far from the “rubber stamp” theory as anybody could get. Second, except in its remoteness from the “rubber stamp” theory, Mr. King's theory was startlingly different from the received doctrine of British parliamentary government. A single example will dispel any doubts. If there is one firmly established point in British constitutional practice, it is that a retiring Prime Minister has no right even to offer advice as to his successor, let alone have it accepted.
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association and the Canadian Historical Association in Montreal, June 6, 1951.
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30 Ibid., 1945, 5-6.
31 Ibid., 1947, 69. Text of Mr. King's motion in ibid., 1934, 58; of Mr. Bracken's in ibid., 1947, 55.
32 Ibid., 1947, 69.
33 1921, 117 Liberals out of 235; 1925, 101 out of 245; 1930, 88 (plus 3 Liberal-Progressives) out of 245.
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46 Military Service Act, 1917 (7-8 Geo. V, c. 19).
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60 Memorandum secured at the time by Mr. Harold Daly, K.C.; read and approved by Colonel Sladen, Lord Byng's secretary. After citing the various divisions of the night of June 25-6, the memorandum says: “Before these divisions were taken and while the House was in session, Mr. King rushed down to Government House and asked Lord Byng for a dissolution. Lord Byng … refused the dissolution. Mr. King thereupon got very angry, went back to the House and was beaten.” I heard this June 26, 1926, but could hardly believe it. The memorandum came to light in March, 1950.
61 In the House of Commons, 1873; Toronto Mail, Nov. 6, 1873.
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67 Ibid.
68 Ibid., 16; see also Mr. Woodsworth, 21.
69 Ibid., 22.
70 Proclamation summoning Parliament.
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