Canada's governors general, 1847-1878 Messamore, Barbara Jane
Canada's governors general, 1847-1878,
c2006, 20060906, 2014, 2006, 2006-01-01, 20060101
eBook
Oft-ignored in the study of Canadian history or dismissed as a vestige of colonial status, the governor general's office provides essential historical insight into Canada's constitutional evolution. ...In the nineteenth century, as today, individual governors general exercised considerable scope in interpreting their approach to the office. The era 1847-1878 witnessed profound changes in Canada's relationship with Britain, and in this new book, Barbara J. Messamore explores the nature of these changes through an examination of the role of the governor general.
Guided by outmoded instructions and constitutional conventions that were not yet firmly established, the governors general of the time - Lord Elgin, Sir Edmund Head, Lord Monck, Lord Lisgar, and Lord Dufferin - all wrestled with the implications of colonial self government. The imprecision of the viceregal role made the character of the appointee especially important and biographical details are thus essential to an understanding of how the new experiment of colonial self-government was put into practice. Messamore's book marries constitutional history and biography, providing illumination on some of the key figures of nineteenth-century Canadian politics.
Canada has had a long tradition of tours by members of the royal family, beginning with the 1860 visit of the Prince of Wales. But George VI’s 1939 royal tour of Canada was the first by a reigning ...British monarch, and its real significance can only be fully understood in context. World events, most notably the looming threat from Hitler’s Germany, made Canada’s attachment to the Commonwealth vitally important. Canada’s Prime Minister Mackenzie King revered the Crown but was a prickly Canadian nationalist who was loath to make any defence commitments to the mother country. The institution of the Crown had weathered a series of crises in the period preceding the visit: the 1931 Statute of Westminster marked a fundamental change in the Crown’s relationship to the dominion governments, and the 1936 abdication sullied the sovereign’s image. The 1939 visit also raised the practical issue of how the duties of the Crown ought to be fulfilled when both the king and his dominion representative were present in the dominion. The 1939 visit represented a vital test of the institution of the Crown, and the true import of the five-week tour must be assessed in light of its political, foreign policy, and constitutional significance.
Canada's parliament was dissolved on 2 August for a 19 October federal election. The campaign was the longest in Canadian history, and one of the most interesting.
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