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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
This is not King-Byng
One point that needs to be made urgently is that what is going on/may happen is not historically analogous to the infamous 1926 King-Byng affair.
In that crisis, the Conservative Party, then led by Arthur Meighen, finished first after an election, winning 116 seats. King and the Liberals were in second place with 99 seats. But because King had the support of the Progressives (a Western protest party), he was able to keep the confidence of the House and continue governing. When he lost the support of the Progressives, King went to Governor General Byng to ask for an election. Byng refused, and asked the party with the most seats in the House of Commons -- the Meighen Tories -- to take a stab at governing.
And therein lies the difference: as I understand it (and I stand to be corrected), at least some of the rationale behind Byng's refusal of King's election request was that the Tories had the highest number of seats.
In the current situation, the party posturing to take over power, the Dion Liberals, only has 77 seats -- half that of the Conservatives, which have 143.
The party with the most seats in the House is the current government, which is at it should be. If the Governor General consents to the proposed arrangement, she would be turning over the reins of power to party with half the representation of the first place party! Does that seem right? (A coalition Liberal/NDP government would have 107 MPs [edit - 114, sorry], almost 40 fewer than the Tories, which is still quite a gap.)
A lot of constitutional experts have been on TV in the last 48 hours saying the GG would give a chance to the Liberal/NDP coalition. They are the experts, not me, but it seems less evident to me that she should.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:55 PM
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