King–Byng affair
The King–Byng affair was a Canadian
The prime minister (leader of the
The crisis came to redefine the role of
Background
In September 1925, William Lyon Mackenzie King, the
Meighen declared victory, but King did not resign. The previous parliament, formed after the 1921 general election, had seen King frequently cooperate with members of the Progressive Party to maintain a majority. Although the Progressives' numbers had also been substantially reduced (from 58), they continued to hold the balance of power in the chamber, and King was confident this informal arrangement could continue even though the Liberals were no longer the largest party.[citation needed]
On 30 October, King visited Byng after consulting with the rest of Cabinet and informed the Governor General that his government would continue until parliament decided otherwise.[3] Byng, who had suggested to King that he ought to resign with such a tenuous mandate, later stated he told the Prime Minister: "Well, in any event you must not at any time ask for a dissolution unless Mr Meighen is first given a chance to show whether or not he is able to govern", to which Byng believed King acquiesced, but King denied took place.[3]
While Meighen and other Conservatives expressed public outrage at what they viewed as a desperate attempt on the part of King to cling to power, some Conservatives were privately relieved by King's decision; they seriously doubted whether the Tories could convince the Progressives to support a Conservative minority government, were confident that King's attempt to remain in power would eventually fail, and thought the expected debacle would be so damaging to the Liberals' reputation that the Conservatives would then be swept into office with a majority.[citation needed]
Customs scandal
A few months later, one of King's appointees in the Department of Customs and Excise was revealed to have taken bribes, after which the Conservatives alleged that the corruption extended to the highest levels of government, including the prime minister. King had already replaced the Minister of Customs and Excise, Jacques Bureau, with Georges Henri Boivin, but recommended that Byng appoint Bureau to the Senate. This alienated Progressive members who were already distancing themselves from the government because of its failure to transfer control of Alberta's natural resources from the federal government to the province.[4]
The Progressive Party's support was temporarily retained by the formation of a special committee to investigate the corruption in the customs department. Its report, which was presented to the House of Commons, acknowledged that there was widespread fraud in the department but did not specifically criticize the government. A Conservative
Request for dissolution
To avoid the inevitable vote on the Fansher amendment, which would either force his government's resignation or bring his administration into disrepute, King went to Byng on 26 June 1926 seeking a dissolution of parliament.[6] Byng, citing his reserve powers, stated he was inclined to refuse the request, reminding King of their agreement made the previous October and arguing that the Conservatives, as the largest party in parliament, should have a chance to form a government before an election was called. For the next two days, the Prime Minister and the Governor General discussed the matter, with Byng asking King not to request a dissolution which he could not give and King twice requesting that Byng consult the British government prior to making any decision. Byng again refused, saying the matter should be settled in Canada, without resort to London.[7] With Byng remaining steadfast, King formally presented the Governor General with an Order in Council for the dissolution of parliament on June 28, which Byng declined to sign, on the grounds that the House of Commons should first be given the opportunity to decide if it could support a different government.[6]
Having been refused his formal request, King resigned. Byng then invited Conservative leader Arthur Meighen to form a government. Although many Conservatives privately preferred an election, Meighen believed he was bound by honour and convention to accept Byng's invitation and formed a Cabinet.[8]
At that time, convention dictated that the ministers of the Crown drawn from the House of Commons were obliged upon appointment to resign their seats in parliament and run for re-election in by-elections. This posed a problem for Meighen: his and the other ministers' temporary absence from the House would make the government extremely vulnerable in the event of a vote of non-confidence. Meighen circumvented this by advising the appointment to Cabinet of ministers without portfolio, who were not required to run for re-election. Progressives and Liberals saw the use of "acting ministers" as against the spirit of the convention, and moved for no-confidence in Meighen's government,[9] which lost confidence by only one vote at 2 am on 2 July 1926.[10]
Meighen subsequently requested a dissolution of parliament, which was granted by Byng on 2 July, and an election was called for 14 September. King's Liberals won a plurality of seats in the House of Commons, while Meighen lost his seat.[11][12]
Legacy
Upon returning to power, King's government sought at an imperial conference to redefine the role of the governor general as a personal representative of the sovereign in his Canadian council and not of the British government (the king in his British council). The change was agreed to at the Imperial Conference of 1926 and came to be official as a result of the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and Statute of Westminster 1931.[citation needed]
In a letter to King
Byng returned to the United Kingdom, leaving Canada on 30 September 1926 a much respected man in both countries, despite the political crisis. Some authorities have held that Byng was constitutionally obligated to refuse King's request; for example, Eugene Forsey argued that King's advice to Byng was "utterly unprecedented" and said further: "It was tantamount to allowing a prisoner to discharge the jury by which he was being tried ... If the Governor-General had granted the request, he would have become an accomplice in a flagrant act of contempt for Parliament."[16] The relatively brief time that King had served in office prior to seeking a dissolution has also been cited as a reason for denying his request. In the United Kingdom in 1950, the Lascelles Principles expressed the relevant constitutional conventions in the matter, citing the King–Byng controversy as one of the underlying precedents.
Other authorities agreed with King, since, by custom, the Lord Byng of Vimy was obligated to heed the Prime Minister's request to call the election.[
The King–Byng Affair was the most controversial use of a governor general's reserve powers until the
]See also
- 1975 Australian constitutional crisis
- Lascelles Principles
- Easter Crisis of 1920
- 2008–09 Canadian parliamentary dispute
References
- ISBN 1-55380-031-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8020-9061-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-436-57110-7.
- ^ Williams 1992, p. 314
- ^ Williams 1992, pp. 314–315
- ^ a b Forsey, Helen (1 October 2010). "As David Johnson Enters Rideau Hall..." The Monitor. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
- ^ Williams 1992, pp. 315–317
- ^ Graham, Roger (1963). Arthur Meighen: A Biography - Volume 2: And Fortune Fled. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, & Company Limited. pp. 420–421.
- ISBN 978-1-55365-560-2.
- ^ Torontoist (2015-09-27). "Historicist: King vs Meighen for the Fate of Canada". Torontoist. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
- ^ "Electoral Results by Party". www.parl.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
- S2CID 150908036.
- ISBN 978-0-7735-0310-6.
- ISBN 978-0-09-453181-9.
- ^ Williams 1992, p. 319
- ^ Forsey, Eugene (1 October 2010), Forsey, Helen (ed.), "As David Johnson Enters Rideau Hall...", The Monitor, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, retrieved 23 January 2011
- ^ Boys, Michael Hardie (10 September 1997), written at Christchurch, Office of the Governor-General of New Zealand (ed.), Public Law Class at College House Christchurch, Wellington: Queen's Printer for New Zealand, retrieved 6 December 2010
Further reading
- Esberey, J. E. "Personality and Politics: A New Look at the King-Byng Dispute," Canadian Journal of Political Science 1973 6(1): 37–55 in JSTOR
- OCLC 234412580.
- Neatby, H. Blair. William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1924–1932: The Lonely Heights (1963)
- Thompson John H., and Allan Seager. Canada, 1922–1939: Decades of Discord. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1985.
External links
- The King-Byng Affair – Canada's Government in Minority; not a scholarly source but includes some documents
- The King-Byng Affair at Marianopolis College
- King-Byng Affair at The Canadian Encyclopedia
- CBC's Up the skirt or in the till: Top ten scandals in Canadian political history