The Crown and Canadian Federalism

D. Michael Jackson

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781459709881
• eBook ISBN: 9781459709904
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Civics & Citizenship
• Index: Politics & International Relations

More than ever Canada's constitutional monarchy should be treasured as a distinct asset for the nation.

Following Queen Elizabeth II's historic Diamond Jubilee in 2012, there is renewed interest in the institution of the Crown in Canada and the roles of the queen, governor general, and lieutenant governor. Author D. Michael Jackson traces the story of the monarchy and the Crown and shows how they are integral to Canada's parliamentary democracy. His book underscores the Crown's key contribution to the origins, evolution, and successful functioning of Canadian federalism, while the place of the monarchy in francophone Canada and the First Nations receives special attention.

Complex issues such as the royal prerogative, constitutional conventions, the office of lieutenant governor, and Canada's honours system are made readily accessible to the general reader. Jackson examines the option of republican governance for Canada and concludes that responsible government under a constitutional monarchy is far preferable. He further argues that the Crown should be treasured as a distinct asset for Canada.

Notes

Preface

1. Rudyard Griffiths, Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2009), 48.

2. Nathan Tidridge, Canada’s Constitutional Monarchy (Toronto: Dundurn, 2011), 19.

3. Ian Holloway, “The Law of Succession and the Canadian Crown,” presented at the conference “The Crown in Canada: A Diamond Jubilee Assessment,” Regina, October 2012.

4. Ibid.

5. John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2008).

6. Hilary M. Weston, No Ordinary Time: My Years as Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor (Toronto: Whitfield Editions, 2007), 8.

7. Lowell Murray, “Which Criticisms Are Founded?” in Serge Joyal, ed., Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003), 135–36.

8. Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute and McClelland and Stewart West, 1976.

9. Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke Irwin & Company, 1979.

10. Ottawa: Le Cercle du livre de France, 1979.

11. David E. Smith, The Invisible Crown: The First Principle of Canadian Government (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995; reprinted with a new preface, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013).

Introduction

1. Hugh Segal, “Royal Assent: A Time for Clarity,” in Jennifer Smith and D. Michael Jackson, eds., The Evolving Canadian Crown (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012), 217–18.

2. Quoted in David Dilks, The Great Dominion: Winston Churchill in Canada, 1900–1954 (Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2005), 83.

3. Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, The Skelton Lecture, 2004, 4–5 (www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/skelton).

4. John G. Diefenbaker, Those Things We Treasure (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1972), 14.

5. The Invisible Crown, 176, 182.

6. Noel Cox, A Constitutional History of the New Zealand Monarchy: The Evolution of the New Zealand Monarchy and the Recognition of an Autochthonous Polity (Saarbrücken: Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008), 35–36.

7. Ibid., 46.

8. Ibid., 45.

9. The Invisible Crown, 11.

Chapter I Canada — Historically a Constitutional Monarchy

1. Eugene Forsey, Freedom and Order (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, The Carleton Library, 1974), 21.

2. Frédéric Lemieux, Christian Blais, Pierre Hamelin, L’histoire du Québec à travers ses lieutenants-gouverneurs (Québec: Les Publications du Québec, 2005), 5.

3. Hereward Senior and Elinor Kyte Senior, In Defence of Monarchy (Toronto: Fealty Enterprises, 2009), 27.

4. Hugh Segal, The Right Balance: Canada’s Conservative Tradition (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2011), 15.

5. For a concise and lucid explanation of the role of these three leaders and the achievement of responsible government, see John Ralston Saul, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin (Toronto: Penguin Canada, Extraordinary Canadians Series, 2010).

6. See on this subject Donald Creighton, The Road to Confederation: The Emergence of Canada, 1863–1867 (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1964), Chapter Two, “The Astonishing Agreement.”

7. Quoted in Janet Ajzenstat, Paul Romney, Ian Gentles, and William D. Gairdner, eds., Canada’s Founding Debates (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 203–04, 281.

8. Ibid., 185.

9. Ibid., 72.

10. Ibid., 19.

11. Quoted in Donald Creighton, The Road to Confederation, 128.

12. Frances Monck, My Canadian Leaves: An Account of a Visit to Canada in 1864–5 (London: 1891).

13. Richard Gwyn, John A., The Man Who Made Us. The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume I: 1815–1867 (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2008), 396.

14. Ibid., footnote.

15. Arthur Bousfield and Garry Toffoli, Royal Observations: Canadians & Royalty (Toronto: Dundurn, 1991), 128.

16. Quoted in Donald Creighton, The Road to Confederation, 421–22.

17. Ibid., 422.

18. Ibid., 423.

19. Ibid., 424.

20. W.L. Morton, The Kingdom of Canada: A General History From Earliest Times (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963), 324. Richard Gwyn expresses similar sentiments (John A., The Man Who Made Us, 397).

21. “How the Dominion Ceased to Be,” in A Fair Country, 250–59.

22. See David E. Smith, Federalism and the Constitution of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), 52, 66, 156–57.

23. The Kingdom of Canada, 494.

24. This is the view of Richard Gwyn, in the second volume of his biography, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867–1891 (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2011), 323.

25. Noel Cox, A Constitutional History of the New Zealand Monarchy, 167.

26. P.B Waite, In Search of R.B. Bennett (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012), 204, quoting Mackenzie King’s diaries.

27. According to Eugene Forsey, however, Lord Bessborough persuaded Bennett and King to agree on John Buchan’s appointment (“The Role of the Crown in Canada Since Confederation,” The Parliamentarian 60, no. 1 (1979), 15).

28. A Constitutional History of the New Zealand ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: The Crown in Canada
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• VI
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Copyright