2. My Published Works & Presentations (2011-Present)

Here is the complete record of all my publications which I have written since starting my scholarly odyssey in 2011, excluding what I’ve written here on Parliamentum as blogposts.

Thesis

Bowden, James W.J. “Reining in the Crown’s Authority Over Dissolution: Canada’s Fixed-Date Election Laws versus the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of the United Kingdom.” M.A. Thesis, Carleton University, September 2018.

Defence of Thesis on 17 August 2018.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Bowden, James W.J. and Nicholas A. MacDonald. “Cabinet Manuals and the Crown.” Chapter 12 in Canada and the Crown: Essays on Constitutional Monarchy, edited by D. Michael Jackson and Philippe Lagassé, 179-195. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013.

Articles in Journals

Bowden, J.W.J. “How Governors General Appoint Prime Ministers: Why John Turner Believed That He ‘Had No Option’ and Became the Patronage Patsy of 1984.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 19, no. x (2025): forthcoming.

Bowden, J.W.J. “Adjusting Federal Electoral Boundaries in Canada: Redistribution 2022,” Canadian Parliamentary Review 47, no.1 (2024): 1-13.

Brock, David M. and J.W.J. Bowden. “Beyond the Writ: The Expansion and Ambiguity of the Caretaker Convention in the 21st Century.” Saskatchewan Law Review 87, no. 1 (May 2024): 1-49.

Bowden, J.W.J. “Review of A Very Canadian Coup: The Rise and Demise of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell, 1894-1896 by Ted Glenn,” The Dorchester Review 14, no. 1 (2024): 21-29.

Bowden, J.W.J. “Review of Pivot or Pirouette? The 1993 Canadian General Election by Tom Flanagan,” The Dorchester Review 13, no. 1 (2023): 85-90.

Bowden, J.W.J. “The Ever-Expanding House of Commons and the Decennial Debate Over Representation by Population.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 17, no. 1 (2023): 85-122.

Bowden. J.W.J. “Party Discipline and Its Fate: Canada’s Ironclad Controls Are Beginning to Rust.” The Dorchester Review 12, no. 2 (2022): 47-58.

Bowden J.W.J. “Review of Laws of the Constitution by Donald F. Bur.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 16, no. 3 (2022): 779-789.

Bowden, J.W.J. “The Origins of the Caretaker Convention: When Governor General Lord Aberdeen Dismissed Prime Minister Tupper in 1896.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 16, no. 2 (2022): 391-444.

Bowden, J.W.J. “What’s In a Name? Newfoundland & Labrador and the Constitution Amendment, 2001.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 16, no. 1 (2022): 243-259.

Bowden, James W.J. “Well-Earned Obscurity: Review of Barry Wilson’s Sir Mackenzie Bowell: A Prime Minister Forgotten by History.” The Dorchester Review 11, no. 2 (Winter 2021): 75-79.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Fight for Labrador.” The Dorchester Review 11, no. 1 (Summer 2021): 49-56.

Bowden, J.W.J. and Lyle Skinner. “‘There’s Nothing Strategic About This’: How Dwight Ball Distorted the Caretaker Convention in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2019.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 15, no.2 (2021): 211-235.

Bowden, James W.J. “Thomas D’Arcy McGee and the Kingdom of Canada,” The Dorchester Review 10, no.2 (Winter 2020): 43-58.

Bowden, J.W.J. “Canada’s Legal-Constitutional Continuity, 1791-1867.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 14, no. 3 (2020): 581-623.

Bowden, James W.J. “A Grandiose Prophet: Sir Sandford Fleming’s Electoral Reform of 1892.” The Dorchester Review 10, no. 1 (Summer 2020): 67-76.

Bowden, J.W.J. “The Origins of Canada’s Electoral System and The Constitutional Considerations of Electoral Reform.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 14 no. 1 (June 2020): 111-187.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Senate Was Always Supposed to Be Partisan.” The Dorchester Review 9, no. 2 (Winter 2019): 55-66.

Bowden, James W.J. “1896: ‘Tu Perds’: How Governor General Lord Aberdeen Dismissed Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper in 1896.” The Dorchester Review 9, no. 2 (Winter 2019): 31-42.

Bowden, James W.J. “‘Indirect Amendment’: How the Federal Department of Justice Unilaterally Alters the Text of the Constitution of Canada.” Commonwealth Law Bulletin 44, no. 1 (2019): 41-65.

Bowden, James W.J. “Ambivalent Empire: Canada, 1917-1919.” The Dorchester Review 8, no. 2 (Winter 2018): 42-53.

Bowden, James W.J. “George Brown and Canada’s Manifest Destiny.” The Dorchester Review 8, no. 1 (Spring-Summer 2018): 44-47.

Bowden, James W.J. “Repealing a Statute When the Legislature Is Prorogued: The Practice in Ontario.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 12, no. 2 (August 2018): 505-512.

Bowden, James W.J. “Reforming Prorogation.” The Dorchester Review 7, no. 1 (Spring-Summer 2017): 64-68.

Bowden, James W.J. “‘O Canada’ and the Two Solitudes.” The Dorchester Review 7, no. 1 (Spring-Summer 2017): 39-44.

Bowden, James W.J. “When the Bell Tolls for Parliament: Dissolution by Efflux of Time.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 11, no. 1 (2017): 129-144.

Bowden, James W.J. “A ‘Basic Dictatorship’ Problem” The Dorchester Review 6, no. 2 (Autumn-Winter 2016): 84-87.

Bowden, James W.J. “1841: The Year of Responsible Government?” The Dorchester Review 6, no. 2 (Autumn-Winter 2016): 69-72.

Bowden, James W.J. “Time Has Run Out On Electoral Reform.” Inside Policy (8 June 2016): 27-30.

Bowden, James W.J. “‘Dominion’: A Latent.” The Dorchester Review 5, no. 2 (Autumn-Winter 2015): 58-64.

Bowden, James W.J. “1791: The Birth of Canada.” The Dorchester Review 5, no.1 (Spring-Summer 2015): 28-32.

Lagassé, Philippe and James W.J. Bowden. “The Crown as Corporation Sole and the Royal Succession: A Critique of Canada’s Succession to the Throne Act, 2013.” Constitutional Forum 23, no. 1 (April 2014): 17-26.

Bowden, James W.J. and Nicholas A. MacDonald. “Writing the Unwritten: The Officialization of Constitutional Conventions in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 6, no 2 (August 2012): 365-400.

MacDonald, Nicholas A. and James W.J. Bowden. “The Manual of Official Procedure of the Government of Canada: An Exposé.” Constitutional Forum 20, no. 1 (17 October 2011): 33-39.

MacDonald, Nicholas A. and James W.J. Bowden. “Letters.” Canadian Parliamentary Review 34, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 55-57.

MacDonald, Nicholas A. and James W.J. Bowden. “No Discretion: On Prorogation and the Governor General.” Canadian Parliamentary Review 34, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 7-16.

Presentations 

Bowden, James W.J. “A Brief Legislative History of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, 1964-2014.” Briefing to Elections Canada’s Closing Conference on Redistribution 2022-2023, 4 October 2023, Ottawa, Ontario.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Decennial Electoral Redistribution, 2021-2023.” Briefing to the Canadian Study of Parliament Group‘s Conference on “Dissecting Redistribution“, 14 April 2023, Ottawa, Ontario.

Bowden, James W.J. “Introduction to Federalism in Canada,” Guest Lecture to LWSO 203: Introduction to Legal Knowledge, taught by Matthew McManus, University of Calgary, 4 February 2022.

Bowden, James W.J. “Introduction to the Constitution of Canada,” Guest Lecture to LWSO 203: Introduction to Legal Knowledge, taught by Matthew McManus, University of Calgary, 2 February 2022.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Authorities of the Territorial Commissions: Responsible Government in Yukon versus Consensus Government in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.” Presentation to the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada’s Fourth Conference, “The Crown in a Time of Transition,” 14 June 2019, Toronto, Ontario.

Bowden, James W.J. “Canada’s Legal-Constitutional Continuity, 1791-1867.” Presentation to Conference on Canadian Federation: Past, Present, and Future, 17 May 2017, Montreal, Quebec.

Bowden, James W.J. “Government Formation in a Constitutional Monarchy.” Lecture to Philippe Lagassé’s course API 6719 A Réforme du Parlement, 25 January 2016, Ottawa, Ontario.

Bowden, James W.J. “Reining in the Crown’s Authority Over Dissolution: The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of the United Kingdom and Canada’s Fixed-Date Election Laws.” Presentation to the Canadian Study of Parliament Group’s Conference, January 2016, Ottawa, Ontario.

Bowden, James W.J. “Reining in the Crown’s Authority Over Dissolution: The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of the United Kingdom and Canada’s Fixed-Date Election Laws.” Presentation to the Canadian Political Science Association’s Conference, 5 June 2013, Victoria, British Columbia.

Bowden, James W.J. “Dawson, Forsey, and Aucoin: Three Schools of Thought on Crown Prerogative.” Presentation to Your Canada, Your Constitution, 4 June 2012, Ottawa, Ontario.

MacDonald, Nicholas A. and James W.J. Bowden. “No Discretion: On Prorogation and the Governor General.” Presentation to Graduate Student Conference of the Bell Chair for the Study of Canadian Parliament Democracy, 10 February 2011, Ottawa, Ontario.

Newspaper Columns and Magazine Articles

Bowden, James W.J. “Quebec Poised to Adopt Proportional Electoral System.” Policy Options, 26 April 2019.

Bowden, James W.J. “Prime Minister Harper’s Fourth Prorogation Looks Much Like His First.” National News Watch: Featured Ink, 26 September 2013.

Bowden, James W.J. and Cara Des Granges. “Allegiance to the Queen Means Allegiance to Canada.” National News Watch: Featured Ink, 23 July 2013.

Bowden, James W.J. “Toronto Newspaper Attacks the Undemocratic Centralization of Power in the Prime Minister and the Corrupt, Unelected Senate.” National News Watch: Featured Ink, 13 June 2013.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Confidence Convention in Ontario.” National News Watch: Featured Ink, 23 May 2013.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Wrong Way to Limit a Premier’s Power to Prorogue.” iPolitics, 18 March 2013.

Bowden, James W.J. and Nicholas A. MacDonald. “Onley Provides Much Needed Education.” Ottawa Citizen. 28 February 2013, A11.

Bowden, James W.J. “Canada Cannot Assent to British Law.” Ottawa Citizen. 5 February 2013, A11.

Bowden, James W.J. and Philippe Lagassé. “Succeeding to the Canadian Throne.” Ottawa Citizen. 5 December 2012, A11.

Bowden, James W.J. “What We Should Remember About the 5th of November: The Truth About Guy Fawkes.” The Huffington Post. Monday, 5 November 2012.

Bowden, James W.J. and Nicholas A. MacDonald. “McGuinty Had Every Right to Prorogue.” Ottawa Citizen. Thursday, 18 October 2012, A13.

Bowden, James W.J. and Patrick Baud. “Jack Layton and the Prime Minister’s Prerogative to Offer State Funerals.” iPolitics. Monday, 3 September 2012.

Bowden, James W.J. “Parti Quebecois Proposals Show Contempt for the Constitution.” iPolitics. Wednesday, 29 August 2012.

Bowden, James W.J. “Open Primaries in the Westminster System.” The Prince Arthur Herald. Thursday, 27 October 2011.

Bowden, James W.J. “The Maple Crown and the Commonwealth Realms.” The Prince Arthur Herald. Monday, 17 October 2011.

Bowden, James W.J. “Favouring Quebec In Parliament Is Illegal.” National Post. 17 October 2011, A8.

Bowden, James W.J. “More seats for Quebec? NDP stance is unconstitutional.” The Prince Arthur Herald. Monday, 26 September 2011.

Bowden, James W.J. and Nicholas A. MacDonald. “The Caretaker Convention: What Happens to the Federal Government in an Election.” Hill Times no. 22, 1082 (Monday, April 4, 2011), 27.