Monthly Archives: September 2011

Cabinet Appointments and By-Elections: Canada’s Lost History of Populism, Part 1

Posted on 2011/09/30 by J.W.J. Bowden

Peter Russell mentioned in his summary of the King-Byng Affair of 1926 that the old custom that parliamentarians appointed to cabinet would resign their seats and run in a by-election complicated the 15th Parliament even more than the gubernatorial-prime ministerial … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct Democracy | 4 Comments

Presidentialism vs Parliamentarism in The West Wing

Posted on 2011/09/29 by J.W.J. Bowden

“The Wake Up Call” in season 6 of The West Wing features a sub-plot in which a Belorussian delegation came to Washington on a fact-finding mission so that they could write a new constitution for Belarus based on the American presidential … Continue reading →

Posted in Parliamentarism v Presidentialism | 10 Comments

Presidentialism vs Parliamentarism: The American Presidency

Posted on 2011/09/28 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Government of the United States of America just averted another shutdown because of failure to pass supply, or appropriations in the American lexicon. I established in earlier posts that the American form of presidential-congressional government is inherently irresponsible (in … Continue reading →

Posted in Parliamentarism v Presidentialism | 8 Comments

The Maple Crown and the Commonwealth Realms

Posted on 2011/09/22 by J.W.J. Bowden

On September 21, 2011, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an excellent new thinktank on public policy, hosted a presentation on a recently published book 1911: The Decisive Election that Shaped the Country precisely 100 years to the day when the results of … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences and Speeches, Monarchism v Republicanism, The Personal Union | 21 Comments

My Column in the National Post on the New Democrats’ Unconstitutional Bill to Give Quebec Fixed Proportion of Seats

Posted on 2011/09/22 by J.W.J. Bowden

Here’s my less hasty take on the New Democrats’ anti-constitutional policies on electoral redistribution. I had forgotten to mention Section 52 of the Constitution Act, 1867! The National Post also published this as a column entitled, “Favouring Quebec in Parliament … Continue reading →

Posted in Electoral Redistributions | 1 Comment