The story unfolds as the Prime Minister explains to the Governor General that his government no longer has the support of parliament and that his minority government will fall.
Prime Minister Harper: “Your Excellency, I’m requesting that you grant the wishes of the governing party to call an election for October 14, 2008”.
Governor General: “Mr. Prime Minister, I can’t help but ask, have you done everything in your power to retain a working parliament?
Prime Minister Harper: “Yes, Your Excellency, however we do not have the majority required to retain a working legislature”.
Governor General: Mr. Prime Minister, it was not long ago where I signed the Royal Assent which brought into law Bill C-16 which puts into place a fixed election date, and according to that law the date by which the election is brought about will not be until next year.
Prime Minister Harper: Yes, Your Excellency, however under a minority government, the Prime Minister retains the right to call an election when in fact the power of a government is unable to garner a majority of votes.
Governor General: There is no question that the present law is clear Mr. Prime Minister, but there remains a question of whether or not the government lost support in the house, when in fact there was no official confidence vote lost.
Prime Minister Harper: Your excellency, I have met with the leaders of the three main opposition parties and they have assured me that they will not support the governments agenda that we are about to put forward, this leaves me no other choice but to ask the people of Canada directly to give us a mandate for that agenda.
Governor General: Mr. Prime Minister, I certainly would not question your integrity or your reasons behind your motivation to call an election, however my role as Governor General is to insure that the spirit of the constitution is kept along with the intent of the law that supports that constitution. Over the past two years your government has succeeded in retaining a minority government, and in your words, it was the easiest minority government ever in Canadian history.
Because the government has not supported the election request with a loss of confidence vote, combined with a strong history of the opposition parties working collectively with the government, I believe there may be a strong will to retain the spirit of fixed elections as outlined in Bill C-16.
Mr. Prime Minister as the Governor General of Canada I feel obliged to offer the leader of the Opposition Stéphane Dion an opportunity to form a Liberal minority government. If he cannot, then I will accept your request to call an election.
Prime Minister Harper: Your Excellency, I accept your decision, but with protest.
At that same time, on the stairs of Parliament a predictable scrum gathers around Liberal Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion.
“The Liberal Party believes it can form a coalition government in order to continue parliaments mandate to October 19, 2009. Our government will ensure that the people of Canada will not be subjected to endless court challenges questioning the legitimacy of an election which was called in a negligent manner.”
While this fictitious account may be far fetched to some, there is a point to be made here. There are far to many questions that remain unanswered as to the circumstances by which this federal election was called and whether the Governor General and the opposition enforced the protocol, which insures our democratic process.
The Governor General's main task is to perform the constitutional duties of the sovereign, on her behalf and to maintain our country’s stability within the principles of responsible government.
The Governor General's powers are legally extensive, however they are in practise very limited and she remains symbolic and a nominal chief executive, acting within the constraints of constitutional convention and precedent. However the Govenor General still through reserve powers, remains as the Crown's final check against a government's power; as Senator and constitutional expert Eugene Forsey stated: "A Governor General must take all steps necessary to thwart the will of a ruthless prime minister." This power was used by Governor General Lord Byng against Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in what is known as the King-Byng Affair of 1926.
King presented Byng with an Order-in-Council seeking the dissolution of Parliament, which Byng, using his reserve powers refused to sign because of a key debate related to censure. Byng believed that King’s request for such a dissolution could be seen as the Crown interfering with the Commons' freedom of speech.. Believing that his minority no longer had enough support to stay in office, King then resigned instead (convention requires a prime minister to either drop the writ or resign when he loses the support of the House of Commons). Byng then invited the Conservative opposition leader Arthur Meighen to form a minority government so the censure debate could continue.
Meighen’s government didn’t last long, and the entire affair became a benchamrk lesson in parliamentary strategy which to this day contains an institutional memory of how the Govenor General can play an election trump card. More recently, many political pundints such as the CBC's Larry Zolf, also speculated whether Governor General Adrienne Clarkson should have refused a recommendation from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to dissolve Parliament in 2002, only two years into it’s majority term.
The Conservatives, Bill C-16 which is an Act that amended the Canada Elections Act, brought about fixed election dates which provides that, subject to an earlier dissolution of Parliament, a general election must be held on the third Monday in October in the fourth calendar year following polling day for the last general election. Presently, the first general election was to be held Monday, October 19th, 2009.
There is no real tangible Constitutional link to the Elections Act, and this Bill isn’t really about “Fixed Election Dates” it really doesn’t change anything and with the recent election call of October 14th, hasn’t even secured October 19th as an election date. A clause describes that the Chief Electoral Officer may recommend an alternate day if the day set for polling is not suitable because it may conflict with a day of cultural or religious significance or a provincial or municipal election.
What the Bill does do is create an example of how fragile our election system is, and how it can be tampered with, which is why the Governor General’s position is still important if she exercises the power to keep the integrity of our voting system in check.
The Bill was built on many arguments made over the years, but didn’t impact the role of the Governor General and her Royal Prerogative, one approach used to define the Bill was used by Stephen Harper as an MP, where in a previous attempt to pass such a law he stated that “Nothing in this Act affects the power of the Governor General to dissolve Parliament whenever the Governor General sees fit.”
So there remains certain question now that this fixed election Act is on the books which creates an intent for a particular time span of government.
Why didn’t the Governor General even suggest to the people of Canada that there may or may not be grounds for questioning if the government did in fact lose the confidence of parliament?
Why did no opposition political party come forward to even suggest that the Governor General offer the opposition a chance to form a government?
Why didn’t the media raise the question of protocol and possibilities that could have created a forum to discuss the role of the Governor General in this strange election call and in advance of a legal fixed election date?
By asking the tough questions we challenge the system to come up with answers that relate to the core of our democracy and to go beyond superficial sound bites, which seems to be the general flavor of this present election campaign.
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Don Elzer writes and comments about the future, current affairs, lifestyle and the natural world. He is a director of the Watershed Intelligence Network publishers of The Monster Guide, which can be found at www.themonsterguide.com
He can also be reached by email at: treks@uniserve.com
