Barry K. Wilson’s Biography on Sir Mackenzie Bowell

Posted on 2021/12/24 by J.W.J. Bowden

If Canada maintained a list of mediocre prime ministers like the mediocre presidents parodied by The Simpsons, Sir Mackenzie Bowell would surely round out the top five along with Sir John Abbot, Sir John Thompson, Kim Campbell, and Joe Clark. Our second and last Senator prime minister languished in obscurity for most of the 20th century, but he seems to have regained some renewed interest in the 21st with two recent biographies. Yet it is telling that Canadian historian Betsy Dewar Boyce failed to obtain a publisher for her book in her lifetime; her biography on Bowell did not appear until 2017, ten years after her death, and this book about Bowell has itself disappeared into the ether of the internet.

In 2021, Canadian journalist Barry K. Wilson secured the publication of Sir Mackenzie Bowell: A Canadian Prime Minister Forgotten by History, and I reviewed it for the latest issue of The Dorchester Review, which just came out online today. You can subscribe to it here.

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Posted in Dorchester Review, History of British North America, Reviews | Leave a comment

Review of Gee & Webber’s “What Is a Political Constitution?” and Some More Thoughts on the Nature of Constitutional Conventions

Posted on 2021/11/22 by J.W.J. Bowden

Constitutional Norms in the United States vs Constitutional Conventions in Canada

I’ve been mulling overGould’s article “Codifying Constitutional Norms” (in the United States) and about constitutional norms in the American versus Canadian systems of government a bit more over the last few days, as well as on the differences between Responsible Government and Consensus Government, as well as a strange precedent that just unfolded in the State of South Australia this week (more on that in a subsequent post). It seems to me that constitutional norms in the United States still remain, for the most part, different in kind rather than merely in degree to most of the constitutional conventions which apply in the Commonwealth Realms, what the British call “the political constitution.”

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Posted in Articles and Books, Codifying Norms in the US, Comparative, Constitution (Written), Constitutional Conventions, Division of Powers, Parliamentarism v Presidentialism, Reviews | 2 Comments

Consensus Government & Confirmation Voting in Nunavut

Posted on 2021/11/19 by J.W.J. Bowden

Consensus Government

Nunavut held its second scheduled general election under the Nunavut Elections Act on 25 October 2021, and the Commissioner convened the 1st session of the 6th Legislature on 17 November so that the 22 members of the Legislative Assembly could gather as the Nunavut Leadership Form and elect a Speaker and also to select the Premier and Executive Councillors of Nunavut, too. MLAs elected Tony Akoak as Speaker, and P.J. Akeeagok as the next Premier of Nunavut (at age 37, perhaps the first head of government of my generation in Canada), along with 8 other MLAs – David Akeeagok. Pamela Gross, David Joanasie, Lorne Kusugak, Adam Arreak Lightstone, John Main, Margaret Nakasuk, and Joanna Quassa – as Executive Councillors.[1]Premier P.J. Akeeagok will assign them portfolios as ministers in the coming days and weeks.

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Posted in Comparative, Confirmation Voting, Consensus Government, Individual vs Collective Ministerial Responsibility, Responsible Government | 1 Comment

Constitutional Conventions in the United States: Some Thoughts on Jonathan Gould’s “Codifying Constitutional Norms”

Posted on 2021/10/31 by J.W.J. Bowden

Introduction

As of 2021, I have been writing scholarly journal articles and blogging here on Parliamentum for ten years. What I find most interesting is seeing how my earlier works have influenced or been used by other scholars, in some cases now a decade after its original publication.

One such example came to my attention earlier this year: Jonathan S. Gould’s “Codifying Constitutional Norms” in the Georgetown Law Journal. Gould cited the piece that Nick MacDonald and I wrote on officialising constitutional conventions in cabinet manuals; we drafted it in 2011, but it did not appear in the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law until 2012.

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Posted in Articles and Books, Codification of Convention, Codifying Norms in the US, Comparative, Constitutional Conventions, Officialization of Convention, Parliamentarism v Presidentialism, Reviews | 1 Comment

The Most Pointless Election Since 1965

Posted on 2021/09/21 by J.W.J. Bowden

2019 & 2021

We have just undergone a futile election which has produced substantively the same outcome as the previous general election in October 2019: a Liberal plurality around 15 to 20 seats short of a majority.

On 21 October 2019, Canadians elected the 43rd Parliament as follows:

PartySeat CountPopular VoteVote Total
Liberals15733.1%5,911,588
Conservatives12134.4%6,150,177
Bloc Quebecois327.7% 1,377,234
New Democrats2415.9%2,845,949
Greens36.5%1,160,694

As of around 0900 on 21 September, the preliminary results show that on 20 September 2021, we have elected a 44th Parliament virtually identical to its predecessor. The results in some ridings might change as Elections Canada counts the rest of the mail-in ballots this week, but the general result of a Liberal plurality at roughly the same level as two years ago will not.

PartySeat CountPopular Vote
Liberals15832.2%
Conservatives11934.0%
Bloc Quebecois337.7%
New Democrats2617.7%
Greens22.3%

Thus far, the Liberals have lost one seat, from 157 to 156, and the Conservatives have held steady at 121.

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Posted in Caretaker Convention & Government Formation, Elections | 5 Comments