The Cabinet Manual and Votes of Confidence under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act

Posted on 2017/06/12 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Cabinet Manual As Explanatory Guide

The Cabinet Manual: A Guide to Laws, Conventions, and Rules on the Operation of Government has proven its worth, both within Whitehall and amongst the wider British public. On 9 June, once the results of the general election had become clear, the Cabinet Manual prevented any confusion over the fact that the incumbent prime minister remains in office and has the right to test the confidence of a hung parliament, especially where the party still holds the plurality of seats.

The Cabinet Manual says:

Parliaments with no overall majority in the House of Commons

2.12 Where an election does not result in an overall majority for a single party, the incumbent government remains in office unless and until the Prime Minister tenders his or her resignation and the Government’s resignation to the Sovereign. An incumbent government is entitled to wait until the new Parliament has met to see if it can command the confidence of the House of Commons, but is expected to resign if it becomes clear that it is unlikely to be able to command that confidence and there is a clear alternative.

Gus O’Donnell, the former Cabinet Secretary who spearheaded the Cabinet Manual in 2009-2011, appeared on Channel Four’s coverage of Prime Minister May’s trip to the Palace, where she informed the Queen that she could continue in government and would like to test the confidence of the new parliament, and her subsequent speech outside Downing Street on 9 June.

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Posted in Confidence Convention, Confirmation Voting, Constructive Non-Confidence, Fixed-Date Elections | 5 Comments

The “1867 As Year Zero” School of Canadian History

Posted on 2017/06/10 by J.W.J. Bowden

John Boyko’s Book on John A. Macdonald

Historian John Boyko appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin on 30 May in order to promote his new book, Sir John’s Echo: The Voice for a Stronger Canada. Boyko presents this warmed over case for Macdonald’s centralized view of federalism and his initial support for a “legislative union” (i.e., a unitary state) of amalgamating the various British North American colonies into one new colony with one order of government. Boyko therefore focuses on the division of powers contained in sections 91 and 92 of the British North America Act, 1867, and emphasizes his own support of the principle in the POGG Clause in section 91 that non-enumerated, residual authorities fall within the competence of the Parliament of Canada and not the provincial legislatures.

He subscribes to what I call The 1867 as Year Zero School of Canadian history: for him and his peers, everything started ex nihilo upon Confederation and the entering into force of the British North America Act, 1867. Nothing else matters — certainly not the political history of British North America prior to 1867. Boyko and other adherents to this school of thought therefore see Confederation as the be all and end all and either ignore outright or egregiously misinterpret what came before.

This view thereby causes Boyko to make statements like that at 4:37, in response to Paikin’s question on the Compact Theory of Confederation:

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Posted in Dorchester Review, History of British North America | 2 Comments

Prime Minister May’s Bane: The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act and the Perils of Early Dissolution

Posted on 2017/06/09 by J.W.J. Bowden

“You shall NOT PASS” the threshold of a single-party majority government.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has learned a hard lesson: early dissolution is like a corrosive, volatile substance whose bearer must handle it carefully or risk being burned. She also learned its corollary: election campaigns matter. A poorly run campaign is an incumbent government’s self-inflicted wound.

May thought that she could wield the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act as a weapon against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, but she proved herself unworthy of it. Early dissolution instead served its own ends.

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Posted in Fixed-Date Elections | 3 Comments

The Harry Potter Parliament: British Columbia’s 41st Legislature

Posted on 2017/05/31 by J.W.J. Bowden

A geeky, Obsessive Pop-Culture Disorder-like thought about British Columbia’s 41st Legislature just occurred to me.

Whomever the assembly elects as its Speaker, and whether the Clark ministry survives or a Horgan ministry takes its place, the razor-thin margin between the Liberals and the NDP-Green grouping means that this 41st Legislature will not be long for this world. It will teeter on the precipice for its entire existence — especially if a New Democratic or Green MLA becomes Speaker. Whichever party forms government will face a high probability of losing the confidence of the assembly on all supply bills. Only one or two MLAs would have to be absent.

One might say, “either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.“

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O Canada, “Thou Dost in Us Command”

Posted on 2017/05/31 by J.W.J. Bowden

Senator Plett, a Conservative representing Manitoba, moved an amendment to the O Canada Bill on 18 May, which would still conform to the purpose of the bill (making the language gender neutral), but which would restore Robert Stanley Weir’s original lyrics from 1908: “True patriot love thou dost in us command.”

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Posted in Dorchester Review, O Canada | Leave a comment